other_medical_expenses is currently calibrated using a survey/account-style benchmark. If we keep a national non-premium medical spending target, CMS National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) out-of-pocket spending is the more defensible official aggregate.
Why the current target is weak:
- The current benchmark is not a clean administrative series.
- NHEA out-of-pocket spending is the official macro aggregate for household medical out-of-pocket spending.
- It is still account-based rather than purely administrative, but it is more authoritative than a survey-preservation target.
Proposed change:
- Replace
other_medical_expenses with an explicit NHEA out-of-pocket benchmark, documenting any adjustments needed to exclude premiums and align to the model concept.
- If the concept mapping is too loose, demote the target to diagnostic status rather than treating it as a hard anchor.
Primary sources:
other_medical_expensesis currently calibrated using a survey/account-style benchmark. If we keep a national non-premium medical spending target, CMS National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) out-of-pocket spending is the more defensible official aggregate.Why the current target is weak:
Proposed change:
other_medical_expenseswith an explicit NHEA out-of-pocket benchmark, documenting any adjustments needed to exclude premiums and align to the model concept.Primary sources: