RAND advances understanding of health and health behaviors and examines how the organization and financing of care affect costs, quality, and access. RAND's body of research—conducted primarily through the RAND Health division—includes innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, health information technology, and women's health, as well as topical concerns such as obesity, complementary and alternative medicine, and PTSD in veterans and survivors of catastrophe.
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.
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.
The recent foiled plot by a naturalized citizen to bomb Washington-area metro stations has national counterterrorism officials warning that the U.S. faces not only risks from abroad, but also homegrown terrorism, write John S. Hollywood and Kevin J. Strom.
In a world where viruses travel as fast as jets, it becomes important for governments to share timely information and accelerate the production and delivery of vaccines, writes Melinda Moore.
Pay for performance, transparency, and other innovative ways of compensating physicians will work only if, at the same time, the system for providing care is changed to one that has clear objectives and provides specific tools to help physicians achieve those objectives, writes Robert H. Brook.
It is time for physicians to think beyond making their institution, practice, or professional society better. The population needs, and deserves, such leadership, writes Robert H. Brook.
In his inaugural address, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu clearly accepted his dual challenge: rebuild a city that welcomes its still-displaced residents, and make long-needed changes to attract newcomers as well, writes Melissa Flournoy.
If patients do not take prescribed medications, are not appropriately vaccinated, or do not obtain preventive screening tests, they may incur costs that others will need to subsidize, writes Robert Brook.
Increased health care coverage raises issues in addition to cost containment. Increased coverage will mean increased demand for primary care physicians, writes Robert Brook.
Can the health care system handle the demands of 30 million-plus new customers?
How close do you think that the health care reform plan would come, in reality, to achieving each goal?
President Obama's nominee to lead the TSA said he would like U.S. airport screening to more closely resemble Israel's. Perhaps attention is turning to what really matters about the attempted Northwest bombing: what it can teach us about aviation security, write Brian Michael Jenkins, Bruce Butterworth and Cathal Flynn.
To clear up some of the confusion about the newly approved health care legislation, Elizabeth McGlynn debunks some common misconceptions about the bill.
The revelation of the arrest in October of Colleen Renee LaRose, who had adopted the pathetically predictable nom de guerre Jihad Jane, once again focuses national attention on homegrown terrorism. But while worrisome, this threat needs to be kept in perspective, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
High-ranking officials in Washington tell Americans that the threat from terrorists—principally self-radicalized homegrown terrorists—is high. Do terrorists pose a threat to Los Angeles, and if so, what should ordinary citizens do? asks Brian Michael Jenkins.
Previous efforts by the international community to stabilize Haiti have met with little or only short-term success. This time, following the earthquake, the U.S. response could actually leverage the response and recovery opportunities into a broader international plan, write Agnes Gereben Schaefer and Anita Chandra.
To provide a context for understanding health insurance premium price increases, this document identifies the factors that insurance companies consider when setting rates for the next year.
It is time for a change before innovative medical researchers develop a new array of tests and measurements, making it even less likely that physicians will have the right answer, writes Robert Brook.
America's tolerance for terrorism cannot be zero. Although we obviously aim to do as much as possible, preventing every attack is an unattainable goal. The country needs to steel itself for the near-certainty that there will at some point be another major strike on U.S. territory, writes Gregory F. Treverton.
The latest disaster to befall Haiti creates the opportunity to combine bipartisan accord on Haiti in Washington with keen and perhaps sustained American public interest, writes James Dobbins.
As America starts its ninth year at war, more than 32,000 U.S. service members have already been wounded in action in Iraq and about 3,500 in Afghanistan. Will U.S. resolve to strengthen care for wounded Americans be maintained, asks Ralph Masi.
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