Sara R. Collins

Sara R. Collins, Ph.D., is senior scholar for the Expanding Coverage and Access and Tracking Health System Performance programs at the Commonwealth Fund. An economist, Dr. Collins directs the Fund’s program on expanding coverage and access and the research initiative on tracking health system performance which produces the Fund’s annual scorecard on state health system performance. Since joining the Fund in 2002, Dr. Collins has led several multi-year national surveys on health insurance and authored numerous reports, issue briefs, blog posts, and journal articles on health insurance coverage, health reform, the Affordable Care Act, and state health system performance.  She has provided invited testimony on 17 occasions before several Congressional committees and subcommittees. Prior to joining the Fund, Dr. Collins was associate director/senior research associate at the New York Academy of Medicine, Division of Health and Science Policy. Earlier in her career, she was an associate editor at U.S. News & World Report, a senior economist at Health Economics Research, and a senior health policy advisor in the New York City Office of the Public Advocate. She holds an A.B. in economics from Washington University and a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University.