diff --git a/scripts/puf_download.R b/scripts/puf_download.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55a459e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/puf_download.R
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+library(httr)
+library(foreign)
+
+shorten_puf <- function(full_puf) {
+  stage_1 <- gsub("C-0", "", full_puf)
+  stage_2 <- gsub("C-", "", stage_1)
+  
+  tolower(stage_2)
+}
+
+download_puf <- function(short_puf) {
+  puf_base <- "http://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/pufs/"
+  puf_suffix <- "ssp.zip"
+  
+  zip_filename <- paste0(short_puf, "ssp.zip")
+  filename <- paste0(short_puf, ".ssp")
+  puf_url <- paste0(puf_base, zip_filename)
+  download.file(puf_url, zip_filename)
+  
+  # unzip
+  unzip(zip_filename, files = filename)
+  saveName <- paste0(short_puf, ".csv")
+  
+  # read sas file and return as csv file
+  mydata <- read.xport(filename)
+  write.table(mydata, file = saveName, sep = ",")
+}
\ No newline at end of file