Measuring racial/ethnic disparities across the distribution of health care expenditures.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess whether black-white and Hispanic-white disparities increase or abate in the upper quantiles of total health care expenditure, conditional on covariates.

Data source

Nationally representative adult population of non-Hispanic whites, African Americans, and Hispanics from the 2001-2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys.

Study design

We examine unadjusted racial/ethnic differences across the distribution of expenditures. We apply quantile regression to measure disparities at the median, 75th, 90th, and 95th quantiles, testing for differences over the distribution of health care expenditures and across income and education categories. We test the sensitivity of the results to comparisons based only on health status and estimate a two-part model to ensur

SUBMITTER: Cook BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2754550 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature