Health Insurance Protection and Medical Care Expenditures: Findings From Three Family Surveys

A recently published report of a nationwide survey 1 showed family medical costs in relation to ownership of voluntary health insurance. The present study, based on surveys of a smaller group of families in three areas, permits a similar examination of the effect of health insurance on family spending for medical care. The findings corroborate those of the national study in many respects. In addition, some special analyses that augment those contained in the nationwide survey were possible in this smaller study. automobile insurance policy purchased from a mutual insurance company that had large nambers of policyholders in the three areas. The universe from which the random sample was .drawn therefore excluded families that were not car owners, an approach that apparently excluded those with very low incomes. There seemed to be no reason to assume, however, that car-owning families would differ materially from all families in corresponding income brackets in the medical care that they received or in the health insurance that they owned. Rural families were overrepresented, since they made up 47 percent of the sample though nationally they represent only a third of all families. T 0 determine insurance consumption patterns, including life insurance, pensions and annuities, automobile, fire and theft COVerage, and health insurance, surveys were made in 1953 and 1954 of 473 families in three different areas. The schedules provided for detailed information on expenditures for medical care; the extent to which hospitals and the services of physicians, surgeons and obstetricians, and dentists were used; and the amounts and types of health insurance benefits received by insured families2 This study deals with the experiences of the 473 families-102 in Columbus, Ohio; 151 in New Haven, Connecticut; and 220 in Vermont. Taken together, though not a true cross section of the population, they appear to be representative of urban