Access to health care refers to the ease with which an individual can obtain needed medical services. RAND research has examined the social, cultural, economic, and geographic factors that influence health care access worldwide; the effects of changes in access; and the relationship between access and health for specific U.S. populations—including racial and ethnic minorities, people with limited English proficiency, the uninsured, the elderly, children, and veterans.
BLOG
A better solution than restricting emergency department use by Medicaid enrollees is to reverse what for many years has been a trend of shrinking access to primary care for Medicaid beneficiaries.
COMMENTARY
The fact that many ED (emergency department) visits could be managed in primary care settings does not mean that such care is available, write Arthur L. Kellermann and Robin M. Weinick.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually—about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly.
BLOG
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate, one of the questions being debated is what effect the mandate would have on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. A factor to consider in this is the effect the ACA would have on small businesses, which employ the majority of America's private-sector workforce.
NEWS RELEASE
Researchers from the RAND Corporation and other institutions have begun pilot-testing a web-based tool designed to help parents and adult caregivers determine whether to seek urgent medical attention for a sick child with flu-like symptoms.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The authors compare the experiences of elderly Medicare beneficiaries in Puerto Rico with their English-preferring and Spanish-preferring Medicare counterparts in the U.S. mainland.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This article tests the hypotheses that reported asthma prevalence is higher among insured than uninsured children and that insurance-based differences in asthma diagnosis, treatment, and health care utilization are associated with disease severity.
COMMENTARY
Most will agree with the undeniable fact that a new era in US medicine and US health care begins in less than 2 years. The key question is what potential measures should be monitored to determine both anticipated and unanticipated effects of the new law on the health of the US population, writes Robert H. Brook.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This article examines the relationship of wealth and income and the relative impact of each on dental utilization in a population of older Americans, using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The CHIP expansions to children in higher income families were associated with limited uptake of public coverage.
PROJECT
Given the worldwide trend of aging populations, it is important to learn about the long- and short-term effects of non-contributory social security programs. With the State of Yucatan, CLASP designed such a program for towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants. The project team is now evaluating its impact on the welfare of residents ages 70 and older.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Examines the health care needs of released California prisoners, communities most affected by reentry, safety net capacity, and provider experiences with ex-prisoners, given California's Public Safety Realignment Plan and federal health care reform.
NEWS RELEASE
With the health care safety net in California under stress from the state's continuing financial crisis, jurisdictions across the state face unprecedented challenges caring for the health and social service needs of people released from state prisons.
REPORT
With the health care safety net in California under stress from the state's continuing financial crisis, jurisdictions across the state face unprecedented challenges caring for the health and social service needs of people released from state prisons.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Use of retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other retail settings increased tenfold between 2007 and 2009. The determining factors in choosing one over a physician's office were found to be age, health status, income, and proximity to the clinic.
COMMENTARY
Evidence from past efforts in the U.S. and abroad suggests that the full potential of health reform will not be realized without specific efforts to reduce disparities, write Robin M. Weinick, Malcom V. Williams, and Romana Hasnain-Wynia.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Approaching disparities through a public health framework can provide the foundation for developing more robust evidence to inform additional policies for improving access and reducing disparities.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Affordability benchmarks and premium-contribution requirements for Children's Health Insurance Program expansions in three states vary substantially, underscoring the ambiguity and subjectivity of affordability standards.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Between 1990 and 2009, the number of emergency rooms (ERs) in nonrural U.S. hospitals declined by 27 percent (from 2,446 to 1,779). Economic factors play a central role in an ER's ability to remain open.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Access to care and care quality for those with insurance are poorer in communities in which many individuals are uninsured.
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