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Suggested Citation:"Acronyms and Abbreviations." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Medical Care Economic Risk: Measuring Financial Vulnerability from Spending on Medical Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13525.
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Acronyms and Abbreviations

ACA

Affordable Care Act of 2010 [commonly used shortened version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010]

ACG

adjusted clinical group

ACS

American Community Survey

ADL

activity of daily living

AGI

adjusted gross income

AHRQ

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

ASEC

Annual Social and Economic Supplement [to the Current Population Survey]

ASPE

Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation [in HHS]

   
BLS

Bureau of Labor Statistics

   
CBO

Congressional Budget Office

CE

Consumer Expenditure Survey

CHIP

Children’s Health Insurance Program

CPS

Current Population Survey

   
DB

defined benefit

DC

defined contribution

DCG

diagnosis cost group form of risk adjustment system

   
FPL

family poverty level

   
GDP

gross domestic product

   
Suggested Citation:"Acronyms and Abbreviations." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Medical Care Economic Risk: Measuring Financial Vulnerability from Spending on Medical Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13525.
×
HHS

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

HMO

health maintenance organization

HRET

Health Research and Education Trust

HRS

Health and Retirement Study

HSA

health savings account

HTHS

Health Tracking Household Survey

   
IADL

instrumental activity of daily living

IOM

Institute of Medicine

IRA

individual retirement account

ITWG

Interagency Technical Working Group [on Developing a Supplemental Poverty Measure]

   
JSM

Joint Statistical Meetings

   
LIHEAP

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

LTC

long-term care

   
MCBS

Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey

MCER

medical care economic risk

MEPS

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

MPS

Medical Providers Survey

   
NAS

National Academy of Sciences

NHIS

National Health Interview Survey

NLTCS

National Long Term Care Survey

NRC

National Research Council

   
OMB

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

   
RxRisk

risk adjustment system that uses information from automated outpatient pharmacy data systems to characterize chronic conditions

   
SCF

Survey of Consumer Finances

SIPP

Survey of Income and Program Participation

SNAP

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [formerly Food Stamp Program]

SPM

Supplemental Poverty Measure

SPR

supplemental poverty rate

   
TANF

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

TRIM3

Transfer Income Model, version 3

   
WIC

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

Suggested Citation:"Acronyms and Abbreviations." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Medical Care Economic Risk: Measuring Financial Vulnerability from Spending on Medical Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13525.
×
Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Acronyms and Abbreviations." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Medical Care Economic Risk: Measuring Financial Vulnerability from Spending on Medical Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13525.
×
Page 112
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The United States has seen major advances in medical care during the past decades, but access to care at an affordable cost is not universal. Many Americans lack health care insurance of any kind, and many others with insurance are nonetheless exposed to financial risk because of high premiums, deductibles, co-pays, limits on insurance payments, and uncovered services. One might expect that the U.S. poverty measure would capture these financial effects and trends in them over time. Yet the current official poverty measure developed in the early 1960s does not take into account significant increases and variations in medical care costs, insurance coverage, out-of-pocket spending, and the financial burden imposed on families and individuals. Although medical costs consume a growing share of family and national income and studies regularly document high rates of medical financial stress and debt, the current poverty measure does not capture the consequences for families' economic security or their income available for other basic needs.

In 1995, a panel of the National Research Council (NRC) recommended a new poverty measure, which compares families' disposable income to poverty thresholds based on current spending for food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and a little more. The panel's recommendations stimulated extensive collaborative research involving several government agencies on experimental poverty measures that led to a new research Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which the U.S. Census Bureau first published in November 2011 and will update annually. Analyses of the effects of including and excluding certain factors from the new SPM showed that, were it not for the cost that families incurred for premiums and other medical expenses not covered by health insurance, 10 million fewer people would have been poor according to the SPM.

The implementation of the patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides a strong impetus to think rigorously about ways to measure medical care economic burden and risk, which is the basis for Medical Care Economic Risk. As new policies - whether part of the ACA or other policies - are implemented that seek to expand and improve health insurance coverage and to protect against the high costs of medical care relative to income, such measures will be important to assess the effects of policy changes in both the short and long term on the extent of financial burden and risk for the population, which are explained in this report.

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