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.
Since Massachusetts enacted health reform legislation in 2006, health care employment in the state has grown more rapidly than in the rest of the United States, primarily in administrative positions.
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 five states.
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.
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.
An independent evaluation of the health reform proposal made this week by President Obama shows that the plan would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 30 million by 2019—very similar to the results expected under separate legislation passed by the House and Senate.
As federal lawmakers prepare for a summit on health care, a new analysis shows that health reform legislation passed by the U.S. Senate would cut the number of uninsured Americans by about half and cost the federal government about $899 billion by 2019.
Compares how two health care reform bills, HR. 3962 and H.R. 3590, passed by the U.S. House and Senate, respectively, in late 2009 compare on a variety of projections made using the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model.
Using the COMPARE microsimulation model, estimates proposed health care reform legislation's effects on the number of uninsured, the costs to the federal government and the nation, revenues from penalty payments, and consumers' health care spending.
RAND Europe reviewed the problem of patient harm in Europe, assessed expected effects of three policy action areas to improve safety and modelled the potential health benefits that could be achieved by reducing numbers of harmful events.
In 2006, Massachusetts passed landmark legislation ensuring near-universal health insurance coverage to its residents, but rising costs threaten the initiative; this policy brief assesses 21 options for controlling health care spending in the state.
Suggests that excess growth in health care costs has adverse economic effects and that these effects are more pronounced in industries that have a higher percentage of workers with employer-sponsored insurance.
This fact sheet summarizes research suggesting that there are basic privacy issues that need to be resolved in the implementation of a national health information network.
This research brief assesses the effects of the government-required Federal Employees Health Benefits Program's provision of behavioral health benefits equal to its general health benefits on insurers and consumers' use of services and spending.
This research brief summarizes the main findings of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment and clarifies its relevance for today's health care debate.
Increased life expectancy and advances in health care mean that Americans now live longer, but with increased chronic illness at the end of life. Deliberate reforms to the U.S. health care system are needed to respond to these changes.
A series of studies conducted by RAND economists Susan Marquis and Stephen Long have examined how successful experimental state public health insurance programs and new public subsidies have been.
States vary substantially in the number of uninsured residents and in their population's health and access to care. As a consequence, effects of policies will vary across states. Many states may need federal assistance to expand access.
CRI fundamentally changed the military health system; therefore, Congress required a demonstration to test the initiative's feasibility and cost-effectiveness before expanding it.