About Jackie Bender, MPP
Jackie is a seasoned policy expert based in San Francisco, CA, with nearly 20 years of experience in federal, state, and local health policy. Her state and local work has focused on Medicaid waivers, public hospital and county financing, Medicaid DSH, cross-county collaboration, managed care contracting, and the impact of social services and housing interventions for marginalized communities. She has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to bring thoughtful policy analysis and collaborative problem solving to create breakthrough solutions for her clients.
Jackie has helped clients navigate Medicaid funding for housing and social supports, plan for expanded access to primary care behavioral health services, and influence state and national policy discussions around affordable housing.
Over her career, Jackie has had numerous policy successes:
She created a novel, data-driven solution that permitted Los Angeles County departments to reach agreement on the long-term financial structure and responsibility for permanent supportive housing;
She was pivotal in the creation of a $3 billion Whole Person Care Medicaid 1115 waiver program in California and supported multiple counties in the implementation of this six-year initiative;
Under the successor program called “CalAIM,” Jackie was the chief financial strategist supporting Los Angeles County’s implementation of Medicaid managed care housing supports within its existing homelessness infrastructure, including developing and negotiating managed care rates for multiple newly covered services; and
She led the creation of a proposal and financial modeling for a new $950 million/year Medi-Cal Graduate Medical Education payment stream for California public hospitals, and collaborated with the state Medicaid agency to obtain CMS approval (State Plan Amendment 17-009).
Prior to working in California, Jackie served as a Congressional aide to a senior member of the U.S. House Ways and Means and House Budget Committees, with an emphasis on Medicare policy for low-income populations.
Jackie received her Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.A. in Political Science from George Washington University.