A Passion for Policy

Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy, Leaves an Incredible Legacy

Many of Sara Rosenbaum’s former students imagined a future in high-level policy positions. They aspired to staff key federal agencies, to lead prominent local organizations, or even to become members of Congress.

But she always told them, “the most valuable thing you can do for yourself--if you really want to understand policy--is to work somewhere where you can see its daily effects.”

Rosenbaum, the founding chair of the Department of Health Policy and Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy at GW’s School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS), recently stepped down from her chairmanship in part to follow her own advice.

Not that she hasn’t walked the walk before. Rosenbaum is trained as a lawyer and immediately out of school worked as a legal services attorney in Vermont, where many of her clients struggled with legal problems related to health care. Some were wrongly billed, others were denied benefits under the state Medicaid program, and others faced eviction from their nursing homes “because their care was allegedly unnecessary under federal standards,” she recalls.

Later, as part of a legal services program based in California, she worked with similar clients on a national scale. Striving to change health policy for low-income and medically underserved populations, Rosenbaum represented community organizations that sought to change laws, as well as those competing for resources under the Community Health Centers and National Health Service Corps programs.  All of these experiences, Rosenbaum says, stand out “because of my clients’ absolute destitution, their compromised health and that of their children, and the vital importance of programs like Medicaid, health centers, and public health.”

Rosenbaum soon came to understand the importance of using law to influence public policy, of influencing millions of people at a time.  “Once you have had individual clients, you appreciate the importance of broad policies that affect countless lives,” she says. “You come to realize the importance of policy solutions that can make entire communities better.”

Rosenbaum then moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the Children’s Defense Fund for 14 years. Under President Clinton, she served as a member of the White House Domestic Policy Council, directing the process of drafting the Health Security Act and overseeing the development of the Vaccines for Children program.

When Rosenbaum joined GW in 1991, the Department of Health Policy did not exist; in fact, the School of Public Health and Health Services did not exist. Her original role as a health services researcher was located within the main University. “I came into what was a little tiny health services research group — there were maybe eight of us,” she remembers. “But slowly and surely, we built one of the nation’s top health policy training programs.”

Today, thanks to Rosenbaum’s direction, the department stands strong with nearly 200 faculty and staff members. The key to training future health policy professionals, she says, is teaching two different kinds of skills: how to generate evidence and how to apply that evidence to the analysis and formulation of policy. “The results of research are hardly a linear road to the policy,” she explains. “So learning to think critically, as a policy analyst must do, is to learn to specialize in health policy.”

In addition to her role as chair, Rosenbaum also directed the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy (which supports community health centers) and the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program (which trains law and public health students in health law and policy). She will continue to teach at SPHHS as the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law, with additional appointments in the Schools of Law and Medicine and Health Sciences.  She also serves on Congressional and agency boards, as well as the boards of numerous national organizations.

Rosenbaum has always remained engaged in law and health policy practice and research, focusing mainly on public and private health insurance, health programs serving medically underserved populations, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  Among her many research projects, Rosenbaum is analyzing the implementation of the Act under a major grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation known as Health Reform GPS.  

“On most days, it can feel as if the nation is lurching rather than moving,” Rosenbaum says about the progress of health care reform. “But in fact, slowly and steadily, we are watching the implementation of the greatest advance in health care equity since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid.” It’s an exciting prospect for Rosenbaum, who watched both the Carter and Clinton administrations’ health reform plans fail. “In terms of national social achievement in health policy, we have never come this far,” she says. “The issues addressed by the Act are the ones that have historically affected the U.S. health care system, but now we are on the cusp of solutions that historically have eluded us.”

Now, Rosenbaum will devote more time to her research and practice, her students and colleagues, and her friends and family.  “My motto is ‘always have a good time,’ and I hope I have contributed to that attitude here,” she says.  “I know whoever follows me will love it. It’s a very exciting program, with marvelous faculty and wonderful students. You couldn’t choose a better place to study health policy than in a school of public health in Washington D.C., particularly one that has provided us so much support.”

“Professor Rosenbaum is a compassionate leader who continually demonstrates how the power of knowledge can transform a healthcare system, and particularly the lives of low-income, minority, and medically underserved populations,” says Lynn Goldman, M.D., M.P.H., dean of SPHHS. “She has created and developed a department recognized nationally by students, researchers, and policymakers for its excellence.  We are deeply indebted to Professor Rosenbaum for all that she has done for the department, our school, and the nation.”