Private Medical Care Expenditures and Voluntary Health Insurance, 1948–61

THE NATION’S private consumer expenditures for medical care amounted in 1961 to $21.1 billion$1.3 billion or approximately 7 percent more than the amount spent in 1960. Direct out-of-pocket payments by consumers amounted to $14.4 billion or 68 percent of the total. The balance of $6.7 billion, representing payments for health insurance, was $832 million or 14 percent greater than the amount spent for that purpose in 1960. Per capita private consumer expenditures for medical care in 1961 amounted to $116.60-up 5 percent from the 1960 figure. Direct expenditures were $79.76 per capita, and payments for health insurance amounted to $36.84 per capita. The data on private medical care expenditures and voluntary health insurance presented here continue the series of annual estimates made by the Division of Program Research and published annually in the SOCIAL SECURITY BULLETIN. In the current article a number of changes have been made-chiefly the shifting of expenditures for the services of osteopathic physicians from “other professional services” to “physicians’ services” and the inclusion for the first time (in “other professional services”) of expenditures for the services of pract,ical nurses in private duty. Because of these changes, revised estimates for each year since 1948 are presented. Slight, adjustmen& have been made in the dat,a for the past 2 years to conform with revisions in source data.