| Sumario: | The writers describe and compare the size and composition of the poverty population under the official poverty measure and two experimental measures of poverty. The primary focus is a discussion of methods and data used to estimate medical out-of-pocket expenses. The findings show that, while many groups are somewhat more likely to be classified as poor under the experimental measures, the depth of their poverty is less than is generally found under the official measure. In general, the findings demonstrate that alternate methods of measuring medical expenses affect our perception of the relative incidence of poverty, the degree of poverty experienced by these groups, and the number of people who are classified in extreme poverty—those with family income below one-half of the poverty threshold.
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