Students enrolled in the Health Law and Policy Clinic will work on cutting-edge legislative, regulatory, and litigation projects at the state and national levels aimed at increasing access to quality, comprehensive health care for poor and low-income individuals and families. Student projects involve:

• informing current debates on the Affordable Care Act and efforts to repeal and replace the law;
• providing law and policy analysis to national and state coalitions advocating to protect Medicaid, Medicare, and discretionary health and public health programs;
• investigating best practices for initiatives to address health disparities and reduce barriers to health care for our most vulnerable populations; and
• litigating to address unfair and discriminatory public and private health insurance practices.

National-level work involves advising government actors and leading chronic illness and disability partnerships to promote health and public health reform initiatives. State-level work (currently in Massachusetts, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas) allows students the opportunity to travel to facilitate trainings and meetings and to support advocacy and litigation strategy development on a broad range of current health and public health concerns. (See the clinic website website at www.chlpi.org for a more in-depth description of current clinic projects.)

Over the course of a semester, students work closely with clinical faculty to become skilled, innovative, and thoughtful practitioners. Students gain a wealth of hands-on experience in current and emerging health law and policy issues, and develop written products such as fact sheets, in-depth reports, comment letters, testimony, presentations, draft legislation, regulatory guidance and brief writing and research in ongoing litigation. Students have the opportunity to develop a range of problem-solving, policy analysis, research and writing, oral communication, advocacy and leadership skills. The Clinic’s on-campus office is in the WCC, where students will meet with their clinical supervisors and colleagues; students also have significant flexibility to work offsite.

Students in the fall clinic enroll in either the fall Public Health Law & Policy seminar or the Health Care Rights in the 21st Century seminar.  Spring clinical students enroll in either the spring Public Health Law & Policy seminar or the spring Policy Advocacy Workshop.  Enrollment in coordinated by the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs.