For most lower-income people who obtain coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act, health care spending will fall. But spending by some newly insured higher-income people will increase because they will be now paying insurance premiums.
This analysis used a RAND microsimulation model to predict the effects of a possible Supreme Court decision invalidating the individual mandate provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 while keeping the other parts of the law intact. The authors predict the effects of such a decision on health insurance coverage overall and for subgroups based on income.
Enrollment is increasing in consumer-directed health insurance plans, which feature high deductibles and a personal health care savings account.
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.
ACA-mandated payment reforms need to achieve more than a one-time cost saving.
If half of Americans with employer-sponsored insurance switched from a traditional health plan to a consumer-directed health plan, annual health care costs would fall by an estimated $57 billion.
An analysis of two rules that allow small businesses to avoid participating in health reform concludes they will have only a minor impact because relatively few businesses are likely to take advantage of the options.
The Affordable Care Act marks a new era in US health care and US medicine. This commentary suggests ways to monitor the act's effect on the health of the US population.
This report examines incentives for small firms to self-insure resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (ACA) and considers the consequences of self-insurance for health plan enrollees. The study also uses the COMPARE microsimulation model to estimate how ACA will influence decisions to self-insure.
Analysis of the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Plan suggests national health care reform may require larger numbers of support personnel, rather than requiring greater numbers of physicians and nurses themselves.
High-deductible plans significantly reduce health care spending but also lead consumers to cut back on their use of preventive health care — even though high-deductible plans waive the deductible for such care.
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.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. This report provides estimates, based on the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model, of how the law will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in California through 2020.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. This report provides estimates, based on the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model, of how the law will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in Connecticut through 2020.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. This report provides estimates, based on the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model, of how the law will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in Illinois through 2020.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. This report provides estimates, based on the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model, of how the law will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in Montana through 2020.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. This report provides estimates, based on the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model, of how the law will affect health insurance coverage and state government spending on health care in Texas through 2020.
U.S. policymakers are increasingly turning to performance measurement as a cornerstone of health care payment reform. This technical report catalogues nearly 100 implemented and proposed payment reform programs, classifies each program into one of 11 payment reform models, and identifies the performance measurement needs associated with each model. A synthesis of the results suggests near-term priorities for performance measure development.
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.
