Katherine Baicker

A leading scholar in the economic analysis of health policy, Katherine Baicker’s research focuses primarily on the factors that drive the distribution, generosity, and effectiveness of public and private health insurance, with a particular focus on health insurance finance and the effect of reforms on the distribution and quality of care. She is currently one of the leaders of a research program investigating the many effects of expanding health insurance coverage in the context of a randomized Medicaid expansion in Oregon.

Her research has been published in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Health Affairs, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. She has served as chair of the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission; chair of the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth; commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. From 2005-2007, she served as a Senate-confirmed member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, in which she played a leading role in the development of health policy.

Baicker Stories

Coronavirus Shows Why We Need To Rethink Health Care, with Katherine Baicker (Ep. 43)

Leading UChicago health economist explains why our public health infrastructure wasn’t ready for coronavirus, and what we need to change for the next pandemic.