The debate within the U.S. government about reforming the health care system centers on ways to control rising costs and assure high-quality, affordable care. RAND Health and its health care reform initiative—RAND COMPARE (Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts)—provide objective research and analysis on topics that can inform the health care reform debate, including financing; increasing access, insurance coverage, and quality; decreasing costs; and promoting wellness and prevention.
With the complex process of implementing the ACA underway, RAND research is tracking the progress of implementation and assessing the potential consequences of choices facing federal and state governments, employers, families, and individuals.
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
Report
Projects how the coverage-related provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in Montana through 2020.
Report
Projects how the coverage-related provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in Connecticut through 2020.
Report
As the health care industry, employers, and government officials seek to control the growth of health spending, new efforts are needed to develop and refine quality-of-care and other performance measures that can assure changes will improve medical care and do not harm patients.
News Release
As the health care industry, employers, and government officials seek to control the growth of health spending, new efforts are needed to develop and refine quality-of-care and other performance measures that can assure changes will improve medical care and do not harm patients.
Journal Article
An analysis of two rules that allow small businesses to avoid participating in health reform concludes they will have only a minor impact because relatively few businesses are likely to take advantage of the options.
Journal Article
An analysis of two rules that allow small businesses to avoid participating in health reform concludes they will have only a minor impact because relatively few businesses are likely to take advantage of the options.
Commentary
The movement toward reporting results of surgeons and hospitals will probably lead to a society in which the wealthy receive care from the better hospitals and physicians, writes Robert H. Brook.
Journal Article
Combining the best elements of academic medical centers and community health centers could deliver high-quality, cost-effective care to low-income Americans while training the next generation of health care professionals.
Journal Article
Although there has been considerable discussion of how the changes that the ACA makes in Medicare reimbursement might affect Medicare spending, on average, there has been little to no explicit recognition that the effects may vary geographically.
Research Brief
Finds that the Affordable Care Act will increase the percentage of employers that offer health coverage to workers: from 57 percent to 80 percent for firms with 50 or fewer workers, and from 90 percent to 98 percent for firms with 51 to 100 workers.
Report
The Affordable Care Act builds on the employer-based health insurance system by developing exchanges through which small employers can offer coverage and by penalizing large employers that do not offer coverage. The exchanges could alleviate some of the difficulties faced by small firms that want to offer insurance.
Journal Article
Only 42 percent of the 354 million annual visits in the U.S. for acute care—treatment for newly arising health problems—are made to patients' personal physicians. The rest are made to emergency departments (28 percent), specialists (20 percent), or outpatient departments (7 percent).
Journal Article
The nature of employer-sponsored coverage may change substantially after implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with an increase in the number of workers offered coverage through the health insurance exchanges.
News Release
The recently enacted federal health care reform law provides health insurance coverage to the largest number of Americans while keeping federal costs as low as reasonably possible.
Report
To avoid changes in current health coverage, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exempts existing plans from some regulations. These exemptions may lead to higher employer-sponsored insurance enrollment and lower government spending.
Journal Article
This article discusses the range of health information technology initiatives included in the 2009 economic stimulus legislation that collectively are known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) initiative; these include proposed regulations on
Commentary
Can the health care system handle the demands of 30 million-plus new customers?, asks Elizabeth McGlynn.
Commentary
How close do you think that the health care reform plan would come, in reality, to achieving each goal? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 is extremely close, and 1 is not at all close.
Commentary
To clear up some of the confusion about the newly approved health care legislation, Elizabeth McGlynn debunks some common misconceptions about the bill.
Research Brief
Stakeholders in communities in which health care access was disrupted by Hurricane Katrina were engaged in an assessment of health priorities, as well as in data interpretation and plan design, to produce a sustainable community-academic partnership.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation.