Colleen M. Grogan
Professor of Health Policy and Politics, University of Chicago
Chapter Member: Chicagoland SSN
Areas of Expertise:
Connect with Colleen
About Colleen
Grogan’s areas of expertise include health policy and politics; patient and consumer participation in health policymaking; and the American welfare state. Her primary focus is Medicaid policy -- the evolution of the program over time as well as current debates on Medicaid expansion in the context of health reform. She has worked with various state governments and agency officials on Medicaid and public health policy. She studies participation with an eye to fostering greater inclusion of patient and consumer voices in health policymaking.
Contributions
Debunking Myths about Medicaid - And Its Expansion
Basic Facts Brief,
The Vital Role of Medicaid in American Health Care
Basic Facts Brief,
No Jargon Podcast
In the News
Quoted by Shefali Luthra in "Insurers Sank Connecticut's 'Public Option.' Would A National Version Survive?," EDGE Washington, March 10, 2020.
Research discussed by , in "The Scary Lessons of Matt Bevin: What We Can Learn about American Politics from the Right Wing’s Destructive Anti-Medicaid Crusade," Salon, November 7, 2015.
Opinion: "Both Parties are Keeping Americans in the Dark about Healthcare Reform," Colleen M. Grogan (with ), The Hill, October 13, 2014.
Opinion: "Pressure to Expand Medicaid Likely to Grow," Colleen M. Grogan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 5, 2014.
Publications
"Medicaid: Health Care for You and Me?" in Health Politics and Policy, Fifth Edition, edited by James A. Morone and Dan Ehlke (Delmar Cengage, forthcoming).
Provides overview of Medicaid, showing how its institutional design has allowed the program to expand over time, until it now covers a significant portion of the American public. Argues that as middle-class families have come to rely on the program to cover themselves and/or to provide long-term care to their elderly parents, the politics of the program has changed, making it difficult to cut back.
"Medicaid and CHIP" (with ), in Oxford Handbook of U.S. Social Policy, edited by Daniel Beland, Christopher Howard, and Kimberly Morgan (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
Provides an overview of Medicaid, showing how state strategies to maximize their receipt of federal matching dollars have led them to extend coverage to unexpected groups -- persons with mental illness, substance abuse, and learning disabilities -- in extraordinary ways. Argues that these federal-state funding dynamics transcend traditional partisan politics.
"Residents’ Perceptions of Effective Community Representation in Local Health Decision-Making" (with ). Social Science and Medicine 74, no. 10 (2012): 1652-1659.
As community participation in local health decision-making has increased, especially in poor areas across the U.S., this study asks African American and Latino residents living in poor, disadvantaged neighborhoods what constitutes a good community health representative. Finds that residents are able to express clear preferences for what would constitute good representation – in particular, that representatives should actively and frequently solicit their views.
"Behind the Jargon: Prevention Spending" Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Special Issue: Critical Essays on Health Care Reform 37, no. 2 (2012): 329-342.
Responds to the oft-heard statistics that prevention spending in the U.S. is persistently low relative to total U.S. health-care spending – amounting to only about 3% of the latter – by pointing out that much spending classified as "treatment" is in fact preventive. Argues that the partisan divide over health care reform and the broader ideological divide over the proper role of the public and private sectors in health care provision drive public health advocates to hide these programs from public view.
"Affordable Health Insurance: What’s Fair and Who Decides?" Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Special Issue 36, no. 5 (2011).
This special issue edited by Grogan considers questions of fairness in the distribution of costs and benefits in President Obama’s health care reform.
"Critical Essays on Health Care Reform" Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Special Issue 36, no. 3 (2011).
This special issue edited by Grogan includes 30 essays on the politics and policy of Obama’s health care reform. Topics ranging from the role of culture, institutions, and interest groups in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, to whether the bill will be able to control health care costs.