HCA-MN’s health policy advisors
 | Jim Hart, MD, MBA worked for 30 years in primary care medical practice and management both independently and with HealthPartners, Inc. He also served on the teaching faculty of Regions Hospital from 1994-2005. Through 2010, he directed the Executive Program in Public Health Practice and the North Central Public Health Leadership Institute in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. His primary interest is in the intersection of health and society and in restoring democracy to our health-care system. He served on the Minnesota Health Care Access Commission in 1989-91 and has been a long-time advocate of a unified, publicly-funded health-care system. Dr. Hart has also had a long interest in global health issues – he served on the boards of WellShare International for 13 years and Global Health Ministries for 6 years. In his retirement, he continues to stay engaged in Minnesota health policy discussions and various community health initiatives. |
 | John A. Nyman, Ph.D., is Professor of Health Economics, Division of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. His research interests lie mainly in the theory of demand for health insurance, the theory and practice of cost-effectiveness analysis, and nursing home care policy. Dr. Nyman is the author of over 150 research articles appearing in a wide range of scholarly publications and is also the author of The Theory of Demand for Health Insurance (Stanford University Press, 2003). He teaches graduate-level courses in health economics and cost-effectiveness analysis, and has been cited for excellence in teaching on a number of occasions. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. |
 | Mac Baird, MD, MS, is CEO of the University of Minnesota Physicians and Co-President of MHealth. He began his medical career in 1978 as a rural physician and family therapist. He has since held academic positions in Oklahoma; New York; and Rochester, Minnesota. Leadership involvement includes co-chair of the Institute of Medicine report on health and behavior, past-President of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and was chair of the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health for fifteen years. |
 | Dr. Jackie Brux is an emeritus professor of economics and founder/director of the Center for International Development at UW-River Falls; and author of the college textbook, “Economic Issues and Policy, 7th edition, 2019" (focus includes topics like health care, education, the environment, immigration, unemployment, world and domestic poverty, international trade). She has her Ph.D. in Economics, focus on Development (development of poor countries) from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. |
 | Kip Sullivan was a staff attorney for the Juvenile Rights Division of the New York Legal Aid Society from 1972 to 1975 in the South Bronx. From 1976 to 1980 he was a fundraiser and researcher for Citizens Action League in California. From 1980 through 2000 he was an organizer and researcher for Minnesota COACT (Citizens Organized Acting Together). From 1986 until 2000, he was COACT’s lead organizer for universal health insurance through a single-payer system. From 1987 through 1995 he functioned as a half-time organizer and lobbyist for the Health Care Campaign of Minnesota, a coalition of two dozen organizations dedicated to enacting single-payer legislation in Minnesota. He was one of two consumer representatives on the Minnesota Governor’s Health Plan Regulatory Reform Commission in 1988. Between 2000 and 2007, he continued to work for universal health insurance as the health systems analyst for the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition (MUHCC), which later changed its name to Health Care for All Minnesota. MUHCC consisted of 15 organizations, including the League of Women Voters, the Minnesota Farmers Union, Physicians for a National Health Program, the Minnesota Nurses Association, and the National Association of Social Workers. Mr. Sullivan has written several hundred articles on health policy, many of which appeared in national newspapers, magazines and journals such as the American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, the New England Journal of Medicine, the New York Times, and the Washington Monthly. He has a BA from Pomona College and JD from Harvard Law School. Read policy analysis from Kip here. |