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About Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS - SU)

Purpose:

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), also called the Health Insurance Cost Study, is conducted by the Census Bureau for the Department of Health and Human Services. It provides national and state level estimates on employer sponsored health insurance coverage. The survey is conducted under the authority of Title 13, United States Code and Section 8(b) and Section 913 of the Public Health Service Act (Title 42, U.S.C., Section 299b-2).

Coverage:

The MEPS-IC collects data from a sample of private and public sector employers. The sample consists of approximately 40,000 private industry establishments and 3,000 state and local governments.

Content:

The MEPS Insurance Component fields questionnaires to private and public sector employers to collect data on the number and types of privates health insurance plans offered, benefits associated with these plans, premiums, contributions by employers and employees, eligibility requirements, and employer characteristics.

Frequency:

This survey has been conducted annually since 1996, with a new sample selected every year.

Methods:

The MEPS-IC uses multiple data collections methods. Establishments and government units are initially screened by telephone to confirm their mailing addresses and to establish a point-of-contact with a knowledgeable respondent. If an establishment does not offer health insurance to any of its employees, the non-insurance questions about establishment and firm characteristics are asked at that time, thus completing the survey by telephone.

Establishments that offer health insurance and those that do not respond to the telephone screening are mailed survey questionnaires. The mailing consists of an establishment-level questionnaire and separate questionnaires for each health plan offered, up to four plans. A second mailing is sent if the response to the first mailing is not received within a three-week period. If the establishment does not return either mailing, it is called and interviewed over the telephone. Large companies and governments are occasionally interviewed in person due to the large amount of data being requested of them.

Products:

The MEPS-IC provides national and state level estimates by industry and firm size. Data for the private and public sectors are tabulated separately. Private sector tables are posted to the MEPS Web Site in July and the public sector tables a month later in August of the year after the data are collected. For example, data used to create the 2006 MEPS-IC tables are collected in 2007, and the tables are posted in July/August of 2008.

To view the data, please click here.

Uses:

Accurate and timely health insurance data are critical, given the rapidly-rising cost of health care. Data are needed to track industry trends and examine how these trends have changed health insurance coverage over time. These data are national benchmarking estimates of how Americans use and pay for their health care services. Policy makers at the national and state levels use the data to assess the status of employer-sponsored health insurance throughout the United States and to monitor the impact of the laws governing health insurance.

Annual national estimates of aggregate spending on employer-sponsored health insurance are used by the BEA to calculated employer contributions to group health insurance, which accounts for about one-half of other labor income, in the calculation of U.S. Gross Domestic Product. BEA also uses these data to monitor trends at the national and state level and to support estimates for the National Health Accounts.

Researchers and policy analysts, both public and private, use these data to analyze a number of issues, such as the factors associated with a firm's decision to self-insure or offer more insurance, and to model the tax implications of proposed legislation.

Special Features:

The MEPS-IC is the only health insurance survey that provides estimates at the state level