Attachment F1 - AHRQ Response to Brookings

Carol Graham

Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow

The Brookings Institution

College Park Professor

University of Maryland

June 2, 2020

Dear Dr. Graham,

We thank you for taking the time to review our proposed MEPS 2021 SAQ supplement. We recognize and appreciate the possibility that Q15 about general life satisfaction could be affected by the order of the questions, and accordingly have moved it to be the first question in this supplement. (We will also mention that other survey questions relating to mental health will remain on the survey, such as the two-question screener for depressive systems from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PH-2) asking about feelings of hopelessness and the possibility of taking little pleasure in doing things. Please see https://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/.)

We also agree that the proposed questions about socialization could be affected by possible continued social distancing into 2021. Accordingly, we will add the phrase “or by video” to the end of Q18 about talking on the phone. We will also add the phrase “in-person or online” to the end of Q20 and Q21 about attending church or club meetings.

Again, thank you very much for taking the time to help us improve this MEPS supplement.

Sincerely,

Sandra Decker

Sandra L. Decker, Ph.D.

Senior Economist