The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is the third in a series of nationally representative surveys of medical care use and expenditures sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). MEPS comprises four component surveys. The Household Component (HC) produces national and regional estimates of the health care utilization expenditures sources of payment and insurance coverage of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. The HC sample design is a stratified multistage area probability design with disproportionate sampling to facilitate the selection of an over-sample of minorities. This report provides an overall summary of HC sample yields across the three rounds of data collection that cover calendar year 1996. It also provides an overview of the weighting strategies used to obtain national estimates of health care parameters for the population. Survey design complexities that require special consideration for variance estimation and analysis are discussed. (authors)