Health Care Costs

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Controlling spending while improving health care access, efficiency, and outcomes is a significant challenge—one that often dominates policy discussions. To help inform decisionmaking, RAND conducts studies that consider all aspects of health care costs, including medical costs, insurance coverage, reimbursement models, and consumer health care expenses.

  • Exterior of a hospital building reflecting the sky off its glass, photo by Arkadiusz Wargula/Getty Images

    Report

    Private Health Plans Pay Hospitals 247% of What Medicare Would Pay

    Sep 18, 2020

    Employers are the largest source of U.S. health insurance, but a lack of price transparency makes it hard for them to assess the costs of hospital services. An analysis of hospital spending by private insurers finds that prices are on average almost two and a half times more than what Medicare would pay.

  • Vial of insulin with a syringe, photo by Bernard Chantal/Getty Images

    Report

    U.S. Insulin Prices Are Often Five to Ten Times Higher Than Those in Other Countries

    Oct 6, 2020

    In the United States, the average price per unit across all types of insulin is $98.70. That's higher than what it costs in 32 high-income comparison nations, ranging from 3.8 times higher than prices in Chile to 27.7 times higher than those in Turkey.

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