Abstract
Aggregate dollar medical care utilization is estimated by applying a fee structure to 1967–70 medical care utilization of 3,418 members of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Portland, Oregon. The data indicated a very stable pattern of medical care utilization by the cohort during the period. The average yearly increase in medical care dollar utilization per person (prices constant) was only 1.5 percent. There was some tendency for resource utilizaton to become more concentrated among the highest users. Inpatient services accounted for about 40 percent of the dollar utilization with no tendency to decline or rise over the fouryear period. While age and death were the only factors significantly associated with the likelihood of being a “high user” in a given year ($2,500 threshold), family size, education, and sex joined these factors in being associated with medical care dollar utilization by an individual. Family size was negatively related while education and being female were related directly to dollar utilization. A limited comparison is made with experience in the U.S.
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This research was supported by Grant No. 5 RO1 HS-01653, awarded by the National Center of Health Services Research, HRA. Technical support was given by the Health Services Research Center, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Portland, Oregon.
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Lairson, D.R., Forthofer, R.N. & Glasser, J.H. Medical care utilization in a regional prepaid medical system. Ann Reg Sci 16, 62–72 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01284247
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01284247