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Sonya Schwartz

Sonya Schwartz is a Research Fellow at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families (CCF) where she works with advocates at the state level to improve access to health coverage for low-income children and families. She leads CCF’s work on coverage for immigrant families, monitoring and analyzing policy issues related to health reform implementation, Medicaid, CHIP, health insurance marketplaces, the basic health program, and more.

Sonya was most recently a program director at the National Academy for State Health Policy, where she led State Refor(u)m, an online network for health reform implementation. Sonya has designed and led projects, written papers, produced events, and provided technical assistance on a broad range of health reform and state health policy issues, including implementation of health reform, health insurance exchanges, essential health benefits, coverage expansions through Medicaid and CHIP, and commercial insurance reforms.  Sonya speaks regularly to a wide variety of state and national audiences such as provider and consumer groups, patient advocates, academic institutions, and other think tanks. She also has experience speaking to a variety of news media, appearing on the Diane Rehm Show, Marketplace, and in US News Health, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and Bloomberg BNA.

Prior to joining NASHP in 2005, Sonya worked as an advocate to expand access to health care and nutrition benefits for low-income populations such as immigrants and people living with HIV and AIDS. She holds a JD from the UCLA School of Law Program in public interest law and policy, and a BA in political science and Italian from Middlebury College. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two small boys.

Latest From Sonya

Latino Child Health Coverage Rate Reaches Record High, But Threats Loom

Originally posted by NCLR Latino children with health coverage reached a record high 92.5 percent in 2015, the second year after key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, according to our new joint report with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. These gains are part of overall coverage gains for […]

Latino Children’s Coverage Reaches Historic High, But Too Many Remain Uninsured

Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau examining health insurance coverage rates in 2015 found that, during the 2013-2015 period, the U.S. experienced the largest two-year decline in uninsurance rates for all children on record. The uninsurance rate for all children declined from 7.1 percent in 2013 to 4.8 percent in 2015. During the […]

Supreme Court Impasse on Expanded DACA and DAPA: A Missed Opportunity For Kids’ Health

By Mayra E. Alvarez, The Children’s Partnership, and Sonya Schwartz, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, also posted www.childrenspartnership.org The Supreme Court’s 4-4 vote in United States v. Texas leaves immigrant families and those who care about their future deeply saddened but ready to fight again for inclusion and fairness. With this split decision, […]

California Moves Toward Offering Full Price Coverage to Ineligible Immigrants in its Marketplace

Governor Brown recently signed into law SB 10, a bill that requires Covered California—the state’s health insurance marketplace—to request a waiver from the federal government to allow immigrants who are currently ineligible to purchase marketplace coverage. If the waiver is granted, immigrants who are not lawfully present would be allowed to purchase health coverage at […]