HEALTH SPENDING BY STATE - NEW ESTIMATES FOR POLICY-MAKING

A new data set from the Health Care Financing Administration gives est imates of state spending for hospital care, physician services, and re tail purchases of prescriptions drugs, which together account for 70 p ercent of health expenditures nationwide. Analysis of these data, whic h are the first uniform state data to be produced for nearly ten years , shows considerable variation among states and among regions in healt h care spending. The New England and Mideast regions show that consist ently highest spending levels for all three categories; the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions spent the smallest amount (as much as 17 pe rcent below the U.S. average).