Karen Davenport, Director of Health Policy
Karen Davenport is Director of Health Policy. Before joining American Progress, she served as Washington Director for the Medicare Rights Center, coordinating the organization’s national policy activities, partnership development and fundraising activities As a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she developed and managed national programs dedicated to increasing health insurance coverage – including Covering Kids and Families and Covering America: Real Remedies for the Uninsured – and improving long-term care financing and services for frail elders and people with disabilities. As a Legislative Assistant to Senator Bob Kerrey, she was responsible for staffing the Senator's work on Medicare, Medicaid, public health, welfare and social issues. Her earlier federal experience includes serving as a specialist in Medicaid legislation for the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and serving on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force. Before entering public service, she worked at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation in Seattle. Davenport earned an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a BA in political science from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
Expertise: Health insurance, Health system reform, Medicaid, Medicare, and long-term care
Articles by Karen Davenport
- High-Risk Insurance Pools: A Flawed Model for Reform , September 29, 2008
- Health Care: The Price Isn't Right , August 19, 2008
- Ask the Expert: Why Does Health Care Cost So Much? , August 11, 2008
- Ask the Expert: Making Medicare Better for Patients and Doctors , July 28, 2008
- Got "Access"? What It Takes to Achieve Meaningful Health Coverage , April 21, 2008
- Diagnosis: Poor Financial Health , March 26, 2008
- Treating a Symptom, Not a Disease , February 6, 2008
- 2008 Medicare Debate: Savings and Performance on the Line , January 31, 2008
- Ask the Expert: Karen Davenport on Health Care in Bush's State of the Union Address , January 28, 2008
- Failing America's Children, Again , October 18, 2007
- Children’s Health Care Benefits , June 27, 2007
- Navigating American Health Care , May 29, 2007
- Bush is Wrong on Health Care , January 23, 2007
- Yes. Let the Government Bargain with Drugmakers. , December 6, 2006
- San Francisco Helps the Uninsured; National Leaders Ignore the Problem , July 24, 2006
- The Ides of May , May 15, 2006
- Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! Cover the Uninsured! , May 3, 2006
- Comment on the Release of the Medicare and Social Security Trustees' Reports , May 2, 2006
- Has Medicare Been Privatized? , February 8, 2006
- Budget Bill Cuts Critical Health Care Services for Low-Income Children, Families and Elders , December 21, 2005
- Fact Sheet: Impact of the House Medicaid and Tax Policies on Low-Income Children , December 9, 2005
- Medicaid: House Budget Proposal Harms Millions , November 29, 2005
- 45.8 Million and Counting ... , August 30, 2005

