Dania Palanker, J.D., M.P.P., is an assistant research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, Health Policy Institute, McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. She analyzes state and federal health insurance market reforms with an emphasis on insurance benefit design, access to health care, and coverage for chronic health conditions. Ms. Palanker is an expert on health benefits provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), and other federal laws related to health insurance. She also serves on the Standing Advisory Board and Chair of the Plan Management Advisory Committee of the District of Columbia Health Benefits Exchange.
Before joining CHIR, Ms. Palanker was Senior Counsel for Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), where she worked on private insurance policy, including access to maternity coverage, preventive services, and treatment for chronic health conditions through the individual insurance market and employer-sponsored coverage. Prior to joining NWLC, she worked for 10 years with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). During her time at SEIU, Ms. Palanker worked on federal health policy as Associate Director of Health Policy and as Deputy Administrator of health benefit funds providing health insurance to low wage workers and their families employed by small and large employers.
Ms. Palanker holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School. She received her B.A. from Middlebury College. She is a member of the New York and D.C. Bar.
