title: Health care expenditure patterns for adolescents.
abstract: Health care expenditure patterns are described using a sample of 2,767 adolescents aged 10 to 18 years from the National Medical Care Utilization and Expenditure Survey. Average total per capita health care expenditures were $525. Average out-of-pocket expenses were $151 in 1988 dollars. The burden of out-of-pocket expenses was distributed unevenly among the families of adolescents. The 10% of adolescents with the highest expenses accounted for 65% of all out-of-pocket expenses. The presence of health insurance coverage greatly reduced the risk of incurring burdensome out-of-pocket expenses. Health policy interventions to improve health insurance coverage of adolescents are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco 94143.
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Newacheck
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: McManus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000191:economics; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006291:Health Policy; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D008297:Male; D014481:United States