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Health Care Access

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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.

Commentary

Counties Need to Help Parolees Access Health Care

Nov 23, 2016

Health needs can be big challenges for former prisoners seeking to reenter communities. But recent policies in California promise to reduce that barrier.
Report

Lessons Learned from the MAVEN Project Pilot

Dec 9, 2016

The Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network (MAVEN) Project created a corps of experienced volunteer physicians to provide telehealth consults to providers in safety-net clinics. This evaluation of the program can inform quality-improvement efforts.

Explore Health Care Access

Commentary

Why ACA Enrollees Need Support After They Sign Up

Health insurance makes checkups and other preventive services affordable. These visits enable providers to identify risk factors for chronic diseases before they start, and suggest ways to become healthier. Helping ACA enrollees connect with providers they like can minimize the risk they will stop seeking routine care.

Oct 11, 2017
Report

Report

The Impact of Health Reform on Purchased Care Access: National Health Reform and Modernization of the Military Health System Study

Newly insured patients through the Affordable Care Act coverage expansion may change how civilian providers interact with the TRICARE program. Some physicians may face financial incentives to drop TRICARE patients for newly insured patients.

Sep 27, 2017
News Release

News Release

Repealing or Replacing Affordable Care Act Would Result in More Uninsured Veterans, Increase Stress on VA Health System

Proposals to repeal or replace the federal Affordable Care Act would likely increase the demand for service in the Veterans Affairs medical system, while also increasing the number of veterans who have no insurance coverage at all.

Sep 14, 2017
Report

Repealing or Replacing ACA Would Result in More Uninsured Veterans and Stress on VA Health System

Recent congressional proposals to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of uninsured nonelderly veterans and further increase demand for VA health care. The effects would vary across states, but the largest impacts would be felt in states that expanded Medicaid.

Sep 14, 2017
Research Brief

How Might Veterans and the VA Health System Be Affected by Repeal of the Affordable Care Act?

The American Health Care Act would increase uninsurance among veterans and demand for Department of Veterans Affairs care by a greater margin than simply returning to pre-Affordable Care Act levels of coverage.

Sep 14, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Implementation of Medical Homes in Federally Qualified Health Centers

A 3-year demonstration to strengthen the delivery of primary care in federally qualified health centers provides some empirical evidence in support of medical-home transformation..

Sep 13, 2017
Commentary

Anticipating Harvey's Toll on Health and Health Care

After Hurricane Harvey, challenges to the health of affected communities and the health care systems that serve them are expected to grow. Among the problems are closures of hospitals, pharmacies, and dialysis centers. Lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy could help relief efforts.

Sep 5, 2017
Commentary

Four Steps That Could Stabilize the Health Insurance Market

Congress will soon discuss options to stabilize the individual market and ensure that all Americans have access to affordable coverage. Policymakers could encourage enrollment, make targeted investments to lower premiums, fund cost-sharing reductions, and enforce the individual mandate.

Aug 25, 2017
Blog

RAND's Summer Reading List for Congress

Hill staffers can make the most of the Congressional recess with this list of must-read research and commentary on the policy issues they will be addressing this fall.

Aug 4, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Utilization of Registered Nurses in Primary Care Teams: A Systematic Review

Embedding registered nurses into primary care teams can increase patient access to primary care services and alleviate organizational workload.

Aug 4, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Did the Affordable Care Act's Dependent Coverage Expansion Affect Race/Ethnic Disparities in Health Insurance Coverage?

While the ACA's Dependent Coverage Expansion has increased insurance coverage, it has also widened race/ethnic disparities because it benefits only those young adults whose parents have private coverage.

Aug 1, 2017
Commentary

Ingredients for Health Care Reform

Despite their differences, the Affordable Care Act and the current proposals to replace it take a similar approach to providing health insurance. What might some alternatives look like? And how could they provide coverage to more Americans?

Jul 10, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Identifying Policy Implications and Future Research Directions Regarding Military Community Support and Child Psychosocial Adjustment

Efforts to organize and consolidate the wide range of support services designed to bolster resilience in military families could enhance service members' mission readiness.

Jun 7, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Expanding Suicide Crisis Services to Text and Chat: Responders' Perspectives of the Differences Between Communication Modalities

Internet chat and text messaging offer anonymity and increased access to suicide hotline callers, but they are not yet a replacement for telephone crisis support services.

Jun 6, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Rapid Growth In Mental Health Telemedicine Use Among Rural Medicare Beneficiaries, Wide Variation Across States

The use of mental health telemedicine among rural Medicare patients varies dramatically across states and is highly concentrated both in terms of who receives and who provides this care.

Jun 6, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Sources of Care for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems: The Role of the African American Church

Many Los Angeles-area African American churches provide recovery supports and services for alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and actively connect individuals to formal AOD treatment.

Jun 6, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

The Emergence and Promise of Telelactation

Telehealth services to support lactation may hold particular promise, but additional research is needed to determine whether the benefits outweigh potential challenges.

Jun 2, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Family Perspectives on Telemedicine for Pediatric Subspecialty Care

Innovative uses of telemedicine - such as previsit communication and postvisit follow up - could improve care by optimizing, rather than replacing, in-person visits.

May 30, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Variation in Dermatologist Visits by Sociodemographic Characteristics

Medicaid enrollees are less likely than those with private insurance to see a dermatologist or receive care for a skin condition, suggesting that efforts need to be made to increase access to skin specialists.

Apr 26, 2017
Report

Examining the Implementation of the Medicaid Primary Care Payment Increase

RAND researchers examined stakeholder experiences with an Affordable Care Act provision that qualifying providers of primary care services participating in the Medicaid program would receive enhanced federal payments for providing certain services.

Apr 4, 2017

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RAND Topic:
Health Care Access

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