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Joan Alker

is the Executive Director and a Research Professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School’s Center for Children and Families (CCF).

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Joan Alker is the Executive Director and a Co-Founder of the Center for Children and Families (CCF), and a Research Professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. Her work focuses on health coverage for low-income children and families, with an emphasis on Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). She is the lead author of a widely cited annual report on the status of children’s coverage. Alker has authored numerous studies and blogs on a range of issues including children’s health, Medicaid waivers, premium assistance, and published in journals such as Health Affairs, NEJM, BMJ, and JAMA.

A frequent speaker and commentator, Alker is routinely quoted in major media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, Wall St Journal, KFF Health News, and Politico. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Northern Virginia Health Foundation and is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. She holds a Master of Philosophy in politics from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College.

Please contact Cathy Hope (catherine.hope@georgetown.edu) with media queries or to set up an interview with Joan.

Latest

  • Census Bureau Releases Some New Data on Child Uninsured Rate, but Questions Remain

    This week the U.S. Census Bureau released the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) data, which examine poverty, income, health insurance and other trends for calendar year 2025. Normally, the Census Bureau would also release the American Community Survey (ACS) this week, which provides considerably larger sample sizes and hence much…

  • Rural Communities at Greater Risk of Harmful Impacts from New Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements 

    In 2025, Congress passed H.R. 1, legislation which requires work reporting requirements as a condition of Medicaid eligibility in the 41 states, including Washington, D.C., that have expanded coverage to most low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. (These mandated reporting requirements also apply in at least two non-expansion states, Wisconsin and Georgia, that cover…

  • Right Wing “Data” Arguing for Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements is Fatally Flawed

    We don’t usually write a blog like this that dissects the flawed methodology of the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) – a right-wing group that is well known for promoting work reporting requirements at the state and federal level – as well as cuts to Medicaid and the safety net more broadly. FGA’s own annual…

  • How Are Parents Impacted By Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements?

    Overview Starting January 2027, H.R. 1 requires every state that has expanded Medicaid to low-income adults – whether through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion or a Section 1115(a)(2) waiver – to implement work reporting requirements (WRRs). New WRR mandates affect those enrolled in the Medicaid expansion category – coverage for adults with income up…

  • Almost All Custodial Parents, Caretaker Relatives Should Not be Impacted by Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements in 28 States

    As states rush to implement complex new work reporting requirement provisions before January 2027, the new Interim Final Rule (IFR) released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has caused massive confusion. However, the IFR made important clarifications about which adults are not subject to work reporting requirements (WRRs), are excluded from WRRs,…