Rosenbaum, Sara

Sara Rosenbaum is a leading health policy expert whose professional accomplishments have transformed the lives of ordinary Americans by advocating for more equitable and effective policies to increase access to healthcare for low-income, minority, and medically underserved populations. Rosenbaum has been pivotally involved in designing national and state legislative and regulatory health policies in a variety of areas, including Medicaid, private health insurance, employee health benefits, health services for medically underserved populations, maternal and child health, civil rights, and public health.

Sara Rosenbaum is the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and is the founding chair of the Department of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services in Washington, D.C. She is also the director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program and the Center for Health Services Research and Policy at the university.

Rosenbaum received her bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in 1973 and her Juris Doctorate degree from the Boston University School of Law in 1976. She began her career as a community legal services attorney in Vermont and California and also worked at the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C.

Rosenbaum's research interest focuses on the ways in which the law intersects with the nation's healthcare and public health systems, with a [Page 1051]particular interest in quality of care, managed care, insurance coverage, and civil rights. She has published extensively and is coauthor of the widely used health law textbook Law and the American Health Care System.

Rosenbaum serves on many boards and committees, including AcademyHealth, the National Board of Medical Examiners, and the Committee on Child Health Research of the American Academy of Pediatrics and on study committees of the national Institute of Medicine (IOM), and she serves in an advisory role to the March of Dimes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center on Birth Defects and Disabilities. During the Clinton administration, from 1993 to 1994, Rosenbaum worked for the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she directed the drafting of the Health Security Act and oversaw the development of the Vaccines for Children program.

Rosenbaum has received numerous accolades for her work, including the Investigator Award in Health Policy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for distinguished national service on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries. In addition, she has been named one of the nation's 500 most influential health policymakers by McGraw-Hill.

Rosenbaum has advised the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in John B. v. Groetz, a class action suit that challenges the adequacy of health services for children in that state. She also continues to champion the needs of the most marginalized members of our society and mentors students interested in improving healthcare for the poor.