Health Care Reform

Contents:

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.

Research conducted by: RAND Health

Featured at RAND

The Affordable Care Act: Four Key Policy Areas

Obama signing the ACA

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.

Four Strategies to Contain America's Growing Health Care Spending

pills and coins

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.

All Items (233)

Commentary

Pressure from Rising Health-Care Costs: How Can Consumers Get Relief? — Oct 23, 2005

Published commentary by RAND staff: Pressure from Rising Health-Care Costs: How Can Consumers Get Relief? in Press-Enterprise.

Commentary

Acknowledge Problem, Then Fix It — Sep 30, 2005

Published commentary by RAND staff.

Journal Article

Exploring Possibilities for Consumer Choice in the German Health Care System — Jan 1, 2005

This article reports on the results of a project conducted to explore feasible reform options in the German Health care system.

Journal Article

The English Star Rating System: Failure of Theory or Practice? — Jan 1, 2005

The star rating system is the first programme in England to make data on quality of public health providers*’ performance publicly available.

Journal Article

Acknowledge Problem, Then Fix It — Jan 1, 2005

Problems related to the costs and delivery of health care services and the three main problems with quality: underuse, overuse, and misuse/error.

Journal Article

Living Long in Fragile Health: The New Demographics Shape End of Life Care — Jan 1, 2005

The author lays out the framework of an approach to reform for the health care system so that people can live well while very sick and dying.

Report

Sick to Death and Not Going to Take it Anymore! Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life — Jan 1, 2004

Maintains that health care and community services are not equipped to meet the needs of people who face a prolonged period of progressive illness and disability before death.

Journal Article

Das deutsche gesundheitswesen im jahr 2012, eigenverantwortung im lichte eines seminar game (seminarspiels)=: German Health Care in 2012, Individual Responsibility in Light of a Seminar Game — Jan 1, 2004

Central questions about ownership in the health sector in Germany. This chapter describes the preparation, processes and results of the workshops.

Journal Article

Local Variation in Public Health Preparedness: Lessons from California — Jan 1, 2004

Evidence-based measures to assess public health preparedness are lacking.

Journal Article

Insurance Status of HIV-infected Adults in the Post-Haart Era: Evidence from the United States — Jan 1, 2003

Uses data from a nationally representative sample of HIV-infected adults receiving medical care to describe the relationship between disease progression and insurance coverage in the United States.

Journal Article

Introduction and Overview of the Conceptual Framework for a National Quality Measurement and Reporting System — Jan 1, 2003

An NQMRS is essential for the nation to make improvements in quality. The work here presents a first step in designing such a system.

Journal Article

Primary Care: The Next Renaissance — Jan 1, 2003

Three decades ago, a renaissance helped create the foundations of primary care as they know it today.

Journal Article

Labor Market Implications of Staff Small Group Health Insurance Reform — Jan 1, 2003

The author determines the impact of these reforms on employment outcomes of individuals with high expected health costs.

Commentary

Take Two Aspirin and Call Congress — Dec 11, 2002

Adding a flexible drug benefit to Medicare would bring costs down, say Dana Goldman and Geoffrey Joyce in an LA Times commentary.

Journal Article

The 107th Congress' Legislative Proposals Concerning End-of-Life Care — Jan 1, 2002

Urgency of policy reform and lack of means to achieve reform calls for consensus and leadership from those concerned with hospice and palliative care.

Journal Article

Systems of Care: Future Reform — Jan 1, 2002

Major new ideas and opportunities shape the direction of reform in serving those coming to the end of life.

Journal Article

The Public Health Infrastructure: Rebuild or Redesign? : Should We Redesign Our Public Health System for the Twenty-First Century Using Nineteenth-Century Templates? — Jan 1, 2002

Individual and societal behavior now plays a more central role in the development of disease.

Journal Article

Health Disparities and the Quality of Ambulatory Care — Jan 1, 2002

Discusses the conclusions of the IOM report Crossing the Quality Chasm that health system redesign must address organizational challenges such as the coordination of care and the effective use of clinical teams.

Journal Article

Health Reform for Children and Families — Jan 1, 2001

The system of care for children in the United States has yet to embody the principles of Bright Futures and other expert panels.

Journal Article

The Myth of Medical Cost Offset — Jan 1, 2001

Increased access to or use of behavioral health services can substantially reduce expenditures in other medical care services.

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Researcher Spotlight

Peter Mendel

Social Scientist

Peter Mendel is a Social Scientist at RAND specializing in organizational dynamics, reform, and global and comparative institutions, particularly related to healthcare systems. He is co-author of a recent international study on the sustainability of quality improvement in leading hospitals and…

Laural A. Hill

Survey Director

Laural Hill is a survey director with RAND's Survey Research Group. Her research and survey interests include health care access and satisfaction, quality of care, and mental health, as well as topics in the area of civil justice. Hill received her B.A. in sociology from UCLA.

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