RAND Experts Available to Discuss Obama Health Reform Plan and Blair House Health Summit

Experts from RAND Health are available to discuss the policies put forward by President Obama Monday to provide insurance coverage to more Americans and the policy options that are likely to be debated by lawmakers during Thursday's Blair House health summit.

RAND has created COMPARE (Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts) to help policymakers and others navigate the complex nature of health care reform. COMPARE, found at www.randcompare.org, synthesizes what is known about the current heath care system, provides information on proposals to modify the system and delivers insight about how potential policy changes are likely to affect health care delivery and costs in the United States. The site features independent assessments of the health reform legislation passed by the House and Senate.

RAND experts available to comment include:

Elizabeth A. McGlynn — associate director of RAND Health and co-leader of the COMPARE project. She headed the RAND critique of both the House and Senate health reform plans.

Jeffrey Wasserman — senior policy researcher and co-leader of COMPARE. He has studied public health systems and state-level health care reform.

Christine Eibner — health economist who has studied strategies to contain health spending and the economic burden that providing health insurance puts upon small businesses.

Jeanne Ringel — health economist and member of the RAND COMPARE team.

Federico Girosi — senior policy researcher and director of the RAND COMPARE modeling team. He is an expert on how to estimate the impacts of proposed health care plans.