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Elisabeth Wright Burak

is a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown University McCourt School’s Center for Children and Families (CCF).

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Elisabeth Wright Burak is a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families (CCF) with more than two decades of experience in federal and state policies to support low-income children and families. She currently leads CCF projects on Medicaid’s role in supporting early childhood development (prenatal to age 6) and maternal health. Since joining CCF in 2011, Elisabeth has worked on a range of health coverage issues, such as state Medicaid expansion and the 2015 CHIP extension in Congress. She previously served as Director of Health Policy and Legislative Affairs with Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families, where she led successful efforts to expand access to ARKids First (Medicaid and CHIP for Arkansas children) and aided other victories for families at the state capitol, including tax relief for low-income Arkansans and increased access to health and education programs. Elisabeth first returned to her home state in 2006 to direct the Arkansas Department of Human Services Office of Policy and Planning, where she guided cross-system initiatives such as children’s behavioral health reform. She began her career in early care and education policies at the National Governors Association and The Finance Project in Washington, D.C. Elisabeth holds Master of Public Policy and Master of Social Work degrees from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in social psychology from Smith College.

Latest

  • Proposed Head Start Rule Would Further Undermine Child and Family Health 

    Head Start, a federal program that supports young children in low-income families, is headlining news in the early childhood policy and health worlds. Early last month, the Trump Administration released a monumental proposal to alter the program’s framework. Head Start is an essential investment in children’s wellbeing that works alongside Medicaid in child care centers,…

  • Maternity Care Billing Changes Begin in 2027 with Potential for Better Transparency and Payments Across the Continuum of Care

    As readers of Say Ahhh! know, 2027 will bring a host of unprecedented Medicaid changes, including work reporting requirements. One less prominent change ahead is adoption of new maternity care codes for insurance payers. Adopting new codes for maternity care adds to the long list of Medicaid agency to-dos, but remains critical for understanding and…

  • Uninsured Infants and Toddlers Now Above 5% Nationally

    What happens when children don’t have health insurance? Their families are exposed to greater financial risk if an accident or asthma attack puts their child in the emergency room. They are less likely to get regular check-ups and health services to keep them developmentally on track. For infants and toddlers, missing regular check-ups risks leaving…

  • Health Coverage Trends for Infants and Toddlers Under Age 3

    Key Findings Methodology Data Sources This brief from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) for 2015-2024. Because of differences in sample size and data processing, the estimates published here may differ from estimates produced using other…

  • Early Childhood Educators Still Need Medicaid – Now More than Ever

    Our brief on the critical role Medicaid plays for the early childhood education workforce has been re-published with new 2024 data, resources, and implications from the past year of federal actions, with the help of our partners, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC),…