Are medical prices declining? Evidence from heart attack treatments

被引：122

作者：

Cutler, DM ^{[1
]}

McClellan, M

Newhouse, JP

Remler, D

机构：

[1] Harvard Univ, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[2] Natl Bur Econ Res, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[3] Stanford Univ, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

[4] Tulane Univ, New Orleans, LA 70118 USA

来源：

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS | 1998年 / 113卷 / 04期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1162/003355398555801

中图分类号：

F [经济];

学科分类号：

02 ;

摘要：

We address long-standing problems in measuring medical inflation by estimating two types of price indices. The first, a Service Price Index, prices specific medical services, as does the current CPI. The second, a Cost of Living Index, measures a quality-adjusted cost of treating a health problem. We apply these indices to heart attack treatment between 1983 and 1994. More frequent reweighting and accounting for price discounts lowers the measured price change for heart attacks by three percentage points annually. Accounting for quality change lowers it further; we estimate that the real Cost of Living Index fell about 1 percent annually.

引用

页码：991 / 1024

页数：34

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[1] The Medicare reform debate: What is the next step? [J].