Making REAL Health Reform Work

Len Nichols PhD is Professor of Health Policy and the Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University. Prior to this, he spent 5 years as Director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan policy research institute based in Washington, D.C. Dr. Nichol’s work bridges the worlds of health economics and health services research for health system stakeholders and clinical leaders, elected and appointed policy officials and journalists. He has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication for the past 2 decades, and is one of the few analysts in Washington that maintains the respect and engagement of elected officials from both sides of the aisle. Len has published widely in a variety of health journals, frequently testifies before Congress, and is actively involved in providing technical expertise to members of Congress, governors, state legislators, and other policy officials around the country. He has consistently sought to add moral arguments to the health policy debate, which can become so technical – and distorted – that it is easy to lose sight of why this issue is so important to real people and to our country. Because of his reputation as an honest and knowledgeable health reform analyst, he is frequently interviewed and quoted by major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Journal, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek magazines, National Public Radio, Lerher News Hour, the British Broadcasting Service, NBC Nightly News, ABC News Tonight, and CBS Evening News. Prior to his work at the New America Foundation, Len was Vice President of the Center for Studying Health System Change, and a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute. During the first two years of the Clinton Administration, he served as Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OM