Contact Adam

Adam Searing

Adam Searing is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families where he focuses on Medicaid and other health coverage programs.

Before joining CCF, Mr. Searing served seventeen years as Director of the Health Access Coalition for the North Carolina Justice Center. The Health Access Coalition is North Carolina’s leading voice for health reforms that address the needs of the uninsured and underinsured. During his tenure, Searing fought to keep health plans and hospitals nonprofit and community-focused, won and helped implement expansions of the state Medicaid program, helped pass a model state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program and worked on passage and implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act. In addition, Mr. Searing taught public policy courses as adjunct faculty at both the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy.

In 2012 he was named a Health Advocate of the Year by the national consumer group Families USA. Also in 2012 he was recognized as a “Champion of Change” in health care by the White House. He is a recipient of both the NC Pediatric Society’s Tom Vitaglione Child Health Advocacy Award and the NC Primary Health Care Association’s Evelyn D. Schmidt Award for Outstanding Service. Searing is a licensed attorney with degrees in both law and public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Latest From Adam

A Tale of Two Medicaid Expansions: Missouri v. Oklahoma

In fishing, what one does with the rod after casting the line and hook into the water is as important to success as getting the lure in the right spot of the stream. Following through with enough wiggle and bounce to make that lure look alive is crucial to actually landing a fish for dinner. […]

Missouri Medicaid Expansion Moves Forward

On July 22, the Missouri Supreme Court in a 7-0 decision ruled that Missouri’s voter-passed Medicaid expansion must proceed regardless of legislative foot-dragging and inaction by the  Governor. The unanimous decision was decided on fairly simple legal grounds. The court noted that the voter-passed initiative had changed Missouri law and added the parents and other […]

Medicaid Expansion Debate: Wyoming, Mississippi and Missouri

Even as state legislative sessions wrap up around the country, the Medicaid expansion debate remains very much alive in several states. With significant extra funding available under the federal American Rescue Plan for states that do expand, the financial benefits for states have never been greater. A new report on the economic effects of Medicaid […]

Federal Incentives to Expand Medicaid and 2021 State Legislative Session End Dates

Congress debates and looks likely to pass a COVID relief bill this month that includes substantial new financial incentives for Medicaid non-expansion states to finally extend health coverage to lower income parents and workers as 39 other states (including DC) have done. States that expand would get two years of increased Medicaid payments based on […]

Health Policy and the First Amendment: Protecting public’s right to be heard in the state legislative process

Georgetown University Collaboration Defends Rights, Facilitates Civic Engagement Recently here at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of my colleagues at the Georgetown University Law School in the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Professor Mary McCord and Senior Counsel Annie Owens are respected attorneys […]