Describes several trends promoting more active consumer participation in health decisions & how consumer info. facilitates that role. Major issues in developing consumer info. are presented, stressing how orientation to consumer needs & use of social marketing techniques can yield improvement. Discusses different aspects of info. for choice of health plan, ranging form consumer perspectives on their info. needs & their comprehension of quality indicators, to methods used for providing such info., such as direct counseling & comparative health plan performance data. Charts, tables & graphs.

119th edition. Provides tables and graphs of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. Each section has an introductory text. Each table and graph has a source note. Appendix 1 includes guides to sources of statistics, State statistical abstracts, and foreign statistical abstracts.

Some vols. include supplemental journals of "such proceedings of the sessions, as, during the time they were depending, were ordered to be kept secret, and respecting which the injunction of secrecy was afterwards taken off by the order of the House."