Table 2.
Estimates of Medical Spending's Relationship to Health Outcome (Final HALex Value), by Alternative Estimation Methods and Instrumental Variables
| Instrument Tests | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimation Method and Instruments (N = 17,438) | Medical Spending Coefficient | p-Value | First-Stage F-Test of Excluded Instrument | Partial R2 of First-Stage Instrument |
| OLS | −0.0013 | <.001 | NA | |
| IV (by instruments) | ||||
| a. Continuous EOLEI* | 0.0043 | .045 | 16.45 | 0.0009 |
| b. EOLEI decile means | 0.0042 | .056 | 15.36 | 0.0009 |
| c. EOLEI decile rank | 0.0040 | .053 | 16.86 | 0.0010 |
| d. EOLEI decile dummies | 0.0016 | .231 | 2.93 | 0.0016 |
*
EOLEI (by hospital referral region; from the 1996 Dartmouth Atlas).
EOLEI, End-of-Life Expenditure Index; HALex, Health and Activity Limitation Index; IV, instrumental variable; OLS, ordinary least squares.