Financing the efficient delivery of medical services while reducing costs for consumers as well as health care providers is among the most challenging domestic policy problems many countries face. RAND addresses health economics issues through innovative, high-profile research in an effort to improve the efficiency of health care organizations, reduce costs for providers and consumers, and improve financing in health care markets.
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
A new RAND study finds that rising health care costs reduce the availability of and enrollment in employment-based private health insurance, and the financial protection provided by it, especially for middle class families.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Public reporting of health care costs is intended to motivate consumers to choose lower cost providers, and motivate providers to lower costs to retain market share. Measures should be chosen based on which pathway policymakers intend to influence.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The higher-cost US system of cancer care delivery may be worth it, although further research is required to determine what specific tools or treatments are driving improved cancer survival in the United States.
COMMENTARY
What do we have to show for all of this spending? Lots of testing and treatment, but not enough health, writes Art Kellermann.
COMMENTARY
If the individual mandate were ruled unconstitutional, subsidies and the age structure of premiums should keep enough healthy people in the insurance exchanges to prevent huge spikes in premiums, write Carter C. Price and Christine Eibner.
REPORT
Eliminating a key part of health care reform that requires all Americans to have health insurance would sharply lower the number of people gaining coverage, but would not dramatically increase the cost of buying policies through new insurance exchanges.
RESEARCH BRIEF
An analysis of the effects of implementing the Affordable Care Act without an individual mandate found that over 12 million people who would have otherwise signed up for coverage will be uninsured and premium prices will increase by 2.4 percent.
NEWS RELEASE
Eliminating a key part of health care reform that requires all Americans to have health insurance would sharply lower the number of people gaining coverage, but would not dramatically increase the cost of buying policies through new insurance exchanges.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The CHIP expansions to children in higher income families were associated with limited uptake of public coverage.
MULTIMEDIA
In this December 2011 Congressional Briefing, Gery Ryan discusses policy options and recommendations on how to most effectively fund HIV treatment initiatives throughout the world.
NEWS RELEASE
With the need for HIV services in developing countries rising and the availability of funding flat or declining, existing resources should be better leveraged to help provide life-saving services to more people in need.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This brief summarizes options for improving value for money in HIV funding by using a case study that focuses on the two largest funders, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund, and antiretroviral therapy.
MULTIMEDIA
The RAND Bing Center for Health Economics, RAND Labor and Population, and the Journal of Human Capital held a two-day Conference on Health, Aging, and Human Capital. Speakers included RAND's Nicole Maestas, NYU's Michael Grossman, and Harvard's David Wise; all conference videos are available online.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Under bundled payments, doctors, hospitals, and other providers share one fee for treating all aspects of a procedure such as a hip replacement or a chronic disease like diabetes. The approach should eliminate unnecessary care and improve quality, but putting it into practice is proving to be more difficult than anticipated.
REPORT
With the need for HIV services in developing countries rising and the availability of funding flat or declining, existing resources should be better leveraged to help provide life-saving services to more people in need.
REPORT
Limiting the growth of health care costs while improving population health poses important and difficult challenges for policymakers. The paper considers innovation in drugs, devices, and methods of delivering health care, with an emphasis on delivery. The authors argue that policymakers should try to encourage innovative activities that are worth their social costs and discourage activities that are not worth their social costs.
REPORT
Under Medicare, many health care services can be provided in a range of ambulatory settings, but payment differentials exist for the facility-related components of care. Building on prior RAND analyses, this report presents options for modifying Medicare payment policies to improve the value of services and to address cost and payment differentials for similar services provided in various ambulatory settings.
PERIODICAL
RAND Health Quarterly is an online journal sharing the results of recent RAND research areas across a broad spectrum of health-related issues.
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.
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