The 1995/1996 Household Income, Expenditure - (PDF, 101 mb ...

VIII. 4
surgical or procedural, anesthesiologist), the cost of the operating room, X-ray
and lab analysis, tools used, and the cost to stay in a hospital's premium-rate
room. Since "Health Insurance" is supposed to be 2% of gross salary for
government employees, and 4% of gross salary for public and private sector
workers, it was imputed according to that schedule in cases where the
respondent was unable to provide a figure. A dichotomous variable for the
existence of health insurance cannot be formed because the question was not
explicitly asked - an estimate of insurance payments exists only for
households having respondents who made payments. There is no way of
determining how to allocate the increase of households who paid insurance in
the respective samples (from 34% to 41%) to increased coverage and increased
need. The nominal cost of kidney dialysis among the list of medical care items
appears to have skyrocketed (an increase of 338%). Such an increase in costs
for this treatment may reflect its luxury value (despite the bias in the mean
from the small number of cases): patients who take such treatments often are
the least likely to benefit because of old age and other infirmities. Alternate
investments, for research and prevention, and concentrating on the younger,
more at-risk population, might be better made. Some of the items which have
seen nominal decreases in average household outlays, such as "Injections,
dressings" and "Other Medical Svcs" cannot be taken at face value because
such categories are prone to measurement error, being too heterogeneous for
precision comparison. Nominal initial fees for consultation (examinations) have
stayed constant, so have become cheaper in real terms.
VIII.B.2 Equivalence-Adjusted Average Medical Expenditures
Adjusting for household size, age and sex characteristics as they exist
in both samples, average expenditures for medical goods and services show an
increasing relationship to household total expenditures. Below are the urban
and rural means and budget shares of medical expenditures for both HIECS
surveys.