Health Policy Center, independent research for better health policy: The Urban Institute

Matthew Buettgens, Ph.D., is a mathematician leading the development of the Urban Institute’s Health Insurance Policy Simulation (HIPSM) model.  The model is currently being used to provide technical assistance for health reform implementation in Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Virginia, and Washington as well as to the federal government.  His recent work includes a number of papers analyzing various aspects of national health insurance reform, both nationally and state-by-state.  Topics have included the costs and savings of health reform for both federal and state governments, state-by-state analysis of changes in health insurance coverage and the remaining uninsured, the effect of reform on employers, the role of the individual mandate, the affordability of coverage under health insurance exchanges, and the implications of age rating for the affordability of coverage.  Dr. Buettgens was previously a major developer of the HIRSM model—the predecessor to HIPSM—used in the design of the 2006 roadmap to universal health insurance coverage in the state of Massachusetts.