ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews major changes in the dollar flows into the health care system of New York City between 1965 and 1994, with the caveat that the financial data sets for cities and states are neither as complete nor as consistent as one would wish. In 1965, personal health care expenditures in the United States amounted to $35.6 billion, $184 per capita for a population of 194.3 million. The estimates of personal health care spending for 1976 reported in the Piore study and in the United Hospital Fund study for 1985 provide us with the basic data to trace what happened in New York City. During the intervening ten years with respect to total spending and with respect to the distribution of the funds among the principal providers of healthcare. In the decade between 1986 and the end of 1994 national personal health care expenditures increased from $398 billion to over $832 billion.
