Bio: Ewout van Ginneken, Ph.D., a 2011-12 Dutch Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is senior researcher at the European Observatory/WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Systems Research and Management, Berlin University of Technology. Previously, he was a lecturer in finance and management at the Instituto Tecnológico y Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico. Van Ginneken is co-author of 8 books, including the last two European Observatory Health Systems in Transition (HiT) books on the Dutch health care system and reforms. With a team of U.S. researchers, led by Thomas Rice, professor of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles, van Ginneken is currently working on the first European Observatory HiT review of the U.S. health care system. He has also written book chapters on the health insurance benefit basket, cost pressures on the health system, public expectations, and cross-border health, as well as peer-reviewed articles on private health insurance in the Netherlands and European pharmaceutical policy. Van Ginneken holds a doctorate in public health from Berlin University of Technology and a master's in health sciences and health policy and administration from Maastricht University.
Placement: Harvard University
Mentors: Timothy Jost, J.D., Washington & Lee University; Katherine Swartz, Ph.D., Harvard School of Public Health
Project: Implementing State-Based Health Insurance Exchanges: Key Issues and Challenges
Description: Van Ginneken explored experiences with health insurance exchanges in the U.S. and Europe, and examined the conditions necessary for competitive health insurance markets to work, identified barriers to successfully implementing exchanges, and derived policy lessons for U.S. states. He conducted a literature review followed by interviews with academics and officials in charge of implementing the exchanges, with a particular focus on affordability, competition, access, and transparency.