Elisabeth Wright Burak

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Elisabeth Wright Burak

Elisabeth Wright Burak is a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families (CCF) with two decades of experience in federal and state policies to support low-income children and families. She currently leads CCF work on Medicaid and young children’s healthy development. 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 From Elisabeth

Early Childhood Investments Less Effective if Young Children Remain Uninsured

Today, we are releasing a companion report to our annual 50-state look at uninsured children with a focus on young children under age 6. Unfortunately, the U-turn we’ve seen in health coverage for children of all ages also extends to the nation’s infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. After a decade-plus of downward progress, since 2016 […]

Nation’s Youngest Children Lose Health Coverage at an Alarming Rate

Introduction Until recently, the U.S. has experienced a consistent, annual decline in the number and rate of uninsured children in most states. Beginning in 2016, however, the trend reversed and the nation’s children experienced widespread coverage losses for the first time in many years. The youngest children were not spared from this inversion. As with […]

The Opioid Epidemic’s Impact on Children Will Cost the U.S. Billions without Urgent Action

If we consider what children need as part of their healthy development, prevention and early intervention are most important. Children’s experiences, especially in the earliest years of rapid brain development, have an incredible impact on long-term health outcomes. And those same experiences are impacted by their parents’ health. The latest illustration: The opioid epidemic, which […]

GAO To CMS: Set Goals, Measure Progress on EPSDT (Do Better)

Another day, another area where CMS could be spending its valuable resources to fulfill Medicaid’s mission to provide health care to low-income Americans, including and especially children. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s watchdog for federal agencies, has some ideas. Regular Say Ahhh! readers know the great potential of Medicaid’s pediatric benefit, called EPSDT. Medicaid […]