title: Affordability of the Health Expenditures of Insured Americans Before the Affordable Care Act.
abstract: Central to the Affordable Care Act is the notion of affordability and the role of health insurance in making otherwise unaffordable health care affordable. We used data from the 1996 to 2008 versions of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to estimate the portion of overall health care expenditures by insured respondents that would otherwise have been beyond their disposable incomes and assets. We found that about one third of insured expenditures would have been unaffordable, with a much higher percentage among publicly insured individuals. This result suggests that one of the main functions of insurance is to cover expenses that insured individuals would not otherwise be able to afford.
authors.affiliation: John A. Nyman is with the Division of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Helen M. Trenz is with the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Nyman
authors.affiliation: John A. Nyman is with the Division of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Helen M. Trenz is with the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Helen M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Trenz
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States