The Labor Center congratulates Miranda Dietz, new Health Care Program director

Miranda Dietz, who has been the Labor Center’s interim Health Care Program director since July, has taken over as the permanent lead of the program.

Since 2012, when she first joined the Labor Center staff, Miranda’s research has focused on health care affordability and coverage for workers and their families in California. Recently, she has led the Labor Center’s research into the impact on Californians of federal cuts to Medicaid. Over the past 13 years, she has analyzed consumer affordability trends in California, examined the effect of the Affordable Care Act and Medi-Cal expansion in the state, and estimated the number of uninsured Californians.

Miranda has been project director for the California Simulation of Insurance Markets microsimulation model (CalSIM), developed jointly with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which models and analyzes the impacts of various policies on health insurance coverage in California. She serves as vice chair of the Data Release Committee for the state’s Health Payments Database. Her research has informed policy decisions at the state and local levels, and she has contributed analysis that has been used in legislative efforts to expand coverage and by Covered California, the Department of Health Care Services (California’s state Medicaid agency), the Department of Managed Health Care, and the Office of Health Care Affordability.

“I’m honored to lead the Labor Center’s timely and responsive research on health care access and affordability at such a critical moment for Californians,” she said. “I look forward to continuing to work with our union and community partners toward the goal of ensuring all Californians have access to affordable, high-quality health care.”

“Miranda’s long tenure with the Labor Center, deep expertise on California health policy, and strong relationships with stakeholders mean that our health care research and public education will continue to inform policy decisions affecting health care affordability and health equity,” said Deputy Executive Director of Programs Laurel Lucia, who previously served as director of the Health Care Program.

Miranda received a Master of Public Policy degree from UC Berkeley in 2012 and a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University. Miranda first collaborated with the Labor Center as a graduate student, researching problems with temporary and subcontracted work in California.

She is co-editor, with Michael Reich and Ken Jacobs, of When Mandates Work: Raising Labor Standards at the Local Level (University of California Press, 2014).