title: Focusing the catastrophic illness debate.
abstract: Unlike other aspects of the American health experience, there is a current void of information on expensive illness experiences. This paper is designed to fill this void and prrsents an analysis of the incidence and cost of catastrophic illness in the United States. Catastrophic illness is defined as an illness episode for which a person incurs $5,000 or more of medical expenses in a calendar year. This information is used to provide a framework for focusing the debate about catastrophic and national health insurance.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006291:Health Policy; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007354:Insurance, Major Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States