Reform Would Increase Healthcare Spending, But Millions More Would Have Insurance, Says RAND

by Janice Simmons, for HealthLeaders Media

In just over a week, congressional leaders will meet on Feb. 25 with President Obama in a televised healthcare reform summit

As a way of anticipating questions about the two reform bills passed last year by the House and the Senate, RAND researchers have been examining the impact of the bills, with a focus on access, quality, and cost.

Their analysis was done using "micro simulation" methods, which provide a "way of quantifying how well a policy option will achieve its goal," said Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director of RAND Health and co-leader of the RAND Compare initiative. These methods are similar to the methods "used by the Congressional Budget Office to provide Congress with estimates of the effects of proposed legislation on federal spending."
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