This issue of the RAND Research Review continues the tradition, attempting to shed light on some of the crucial issues facing not just aging baby boomers, but an aging society--a landscape that is being transformed even as we study it.
What is to become of those familiar landmarks--Social Security and Medicare--so comforting to our parents? How golden will the "golden years" be when the great shift of boomers into retirement occurs? What will it mean when instead of three-plus workers supporting every retiree--as is now the case--there are fewer than two? Are we saving enough to live in reasonable comfort in old age if Social Security benefits shrink? What are the prospects for millions of elderly to get high-quality health care in an emerging system of medicine that elevates cost-containment to the level of a principle?
The studies reported here all break new ground in our understanding of these
issues. Yet they also expose critical gaps in our knowledge. We know, for
example, that managed-care organizations save money, but next to nothing is known
about whether those savings are achieved through efficiency or by reductions in
access to care or quality or both. We are approaching an unknown future at
dizzying speed--a future in which we will need systematic, objective
research as never before to inform the decisions that shape policy--whether those
decisions are made in Washington or in state capitals. Today as in the past,
RAND is committed to providing that kind of research.
James A. Thomson
President and Chief Executive Officer
RAND