July 13, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Retirees spending more on health insurance

Retired households spent more of their budgets on health insurance in 1997 than in 1987.

[Chart data—TXT]

In 1997, the share of retired households’ expenditures devoted to health insurance was 7.4 percent, up from 5.2 percent in 1987. The share spent on all other health care expenses fell to 5.9 percent in 1997, from 6.6 percent in 1987.

Of the categories shown in the chart, health insurance increased the most as a share of expenditures (measuring change in percentage points). The health insurance share rose 2.2 percentage points, compared with 1.4 percentage points for entertainment and 0.4 percentage point for transportation. The remaining categories had decreases in their shares from 1987 to 1997.

These data are produced by the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys program. More information can be found in Issues in Labor Statistics: Consumer Spending During Retirement. (Summary 00-11, May 2000). A consumer unit is classified as retired if the reference person is 65 years of age or older and retired, and there are no earners in the household.