Related Link: http://www.projecthope.org/Gail Wilensky, an economist, and a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE analyzes and develops policies relating to health care reform and to ongoing changes in the health care environment.
Dr. Wilensky is a Commissioner on the WHO's Commission On the Social Determinants of Health, an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies and its Governing Council; is Vice Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission; and serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America, the American Heart Association and the National Opinion Research Center. She is an advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund, immediate past chair of the Board of Directors of Academy Health and is a director on several corporate boards.
From 1990 - 1992, she was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs. She also served as Deputy Assistant to President (GHW) Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare issues from 1992 to 1993.
From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on payment and other issues relating to Medicare, and from 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission. From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation's Veterans, which covered health care for both veterans and military retirees. In 2007, she was appointed the President's Commission On Care For America's Returning Wounded Warriors.
Dr. Wilensky testifies frequently before Congressional committees, acts as an advisor to members of Congress and other elected officials, and speaks nationally and internationally before professional, business and consumer groups. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan.
