TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fuchs,Victor R.
AU  - McClellan,Mark
AU  - Skinner,Jonathan
TI  - Area Differences in Utilization of Medical Care and Mortality Among U.S. Elderly
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8628
PY  - 2001
Y2  - December 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8628
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8628.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Victor R. Fuchs
796 Cedro Way
Stanford, CA  94305
Tel: 650/326-7639
Fax: 650/328-4163
E-Mail: vfuchs@stanford.edu

Mark B. McClellan
Director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
Leonard .D. Schaeffer Director's Chair in
Health Policy ,The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 741-6567
Fax: NA
E-Mail: mmcclellan@brookings.edu

Jonathan S. Skinner
Department of Economics
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: 603/646-2535
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: jonathan.skinner@dartmouth.edu
M1  - published as Victor R. Fuchs, Mark B. McClellan, Jonathan S. Skinner. "Area Differences in Utilization of Medical Care and Mortality among U.S. Elderly ," in David A. Wise, editor, "Perspectives on the Economics of Aging" University of Chicago Press (2004)

AB  - This paper examines 313 U.S. areas for differences in medical care utilization and mortality of whites ages 65-84 in 1990.  The variables included in the analysis are education, real income, cigarette sales, obesity, air pollution, percent black, and dummy variables for seven regions and five population size categories from  MSAs over 500,000 to not in MSA. Utilization, especially inpatient care, is strongly positively related to mortality.  Mortality is positively related to cigarette sales, obesity, air pollution and percent black. Utilization (especially outpatient) is significantly higher in MSAs with populations greater than 500,000.  Mortality does not vary with population size, with or without controls.  Florida is an outlier for both utilization (very high) and mortality (by far the lowest of any region).  The puzzles of Floridian exceptionalism and the positive relation between white mortality and percent black are discussed but not resolved.
ER  -