Dr. Sommers was a panelist for the Forum’s discussion on Health Care Inequalities in America.
Dr. Benjamin Sommers is a health economist and a physician whose main research interests are health policy for vulnerable populations, the uninsured, and the health care safety net. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Alice Hersh New Investigator Award, and the 2015 Article-of-the-Year Award from AcademyHealth, a preeminent national association of health policy researchers; and the Outstanding Junior Investigator Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Sommers is a practicing primary care internist, and he is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. From 2011-2012, he served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and he has continued to serve part-time in an advisory role in 2013-2015. His current research projects focus on barriers to health care access among low-income adults, Medicaid policy, and national health reform.
