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Joan Alker

is the Executive Director of the Center for Children and Families and a Research Professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy.

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Joan Alker is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Children and Families (CCF), and a Research Professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. She is a nationally recognized expert on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and is the lead author of CCF’s annual report on children’s health care coverage trends. Alker has published in journals such as JAMA and Health Affairs and has written numerous reports, blogs, and other commentary on a wide range of issues including Medicaid Section 1115 waivers, child and family health, the role of Medicaid in rural areas, and numerous reports on premium assistance for the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Alker has testified before Congress, served on expert advisory panels to the federal government, and is a frequent speaker and commentator; she is routinely quoted in major national and state media outlets such as the New York Times, NPR, Politico, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Kaiser Health News. Joan Alker 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. Follow Joan on Twitter @JoanAlker1

Latest

  • Medicaid Cuts Grow Harsher as GOP Attempts to Ram Trump Agenda Through House Before Memorial Day

    The full court press is on to pass the “One Big Beautiful Bill” with President Trump visiting the House Republican Caucus this morning to pressure competing factions to just say “yes” and pass the bill this week — before the Memorial Day recess and before anyone has time to untangle what is in the bill.…

  • CCF Marks 20th Anniversary as Ominous Cuts to Medicaid Loom   

    The Center for Children and Families turned 20 on Monday! I marked this milestone as a guest on the NPR 1A program, explaining the role of Medicaid and Congressional proposals to cut it deeply. Many of the listeners needed no convincing that Medicaid was important, indeed life-sustaining for them and their families. One mother called…

  • Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements Under Consideration by Congress Put People with Disabilities, Cancer, and Those Impacted by the Opioid Crisis at Risk

    As Congress considers cutting Medicaid to finance President Trump’s legislative agenda, one of the proposals that appears to have a great deal of support from Republicans is the imposition of a punitive work reporting requirement as a condition of Medicaid eligibility. I have long held the view that this approach is deeply flawed for a…

  • Voices from Ohio: The Harm of Medicaid Work Requirements

    As Congress considers imposing a mandatory work reporting requirement (WRR) on adults in Medicaid as part of their drive to impose large federal cuts to Medicaid, Ohio is the first state during the second Trump Administration to request Section 1115 demonstration authority to impose a WRR on its ACA Medicaid expansion group. Ohioans are speaking…

  • What is President Trump Saying About Medicaid?

    Asked about broader spending cuts … Trump said we’ll “love and cherish” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the last of which insures more than 70 million Americans. “We’re not going to do anything with that, unless we can find some abuse or waste,” Trump said. “The people won’t be affected. It will only be more…