Placement: University of Michigan
Mentor: Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H. (Percy and Mary Murphy Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Health Management and Policy, Child Health Evaluation and Research Center [CHEAR], University of Michigan)
Co-Mentor: John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P. (Alice Hamilton Professor of Medicine; Director, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan)
Project: Insurance and Health Service Utilization for Children with Special Health Care Needs
Kim Dalziel, Ph.D., M.Sc., is a 2017-18 Australian Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. She is a Health Economist and Deputy Director of the Health Economics Unit at the University of Melbourne where she specializes in economic evaluation and health services research in the area of child health. Dalziel regularly collaborates with the Royal Children’s and Royal Women’s Hospitals in Melbourne on projects related to concussion and head injury, neonatology, mental health and congenital heart disease. She has a particular interest in health equity and supportive health policy to improve the health of vulnerable populations. She was awarded a McKenzie post-doctoral Fellowship and an Australian Health Services Research and Policy Fellowship, and has held previous academic positions at Monash University an d Exeter University in the United Kingdom. Dalziel has more than 60 peer-reviewed publications including in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Economics, PharmacoEconomics and Medical Decision Making. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of South Australia and earned a Masters in Health Economics at Curtin University.
Project Abstract: This research aims to understand the variation in health care utilization by insurance status and the cost of providing care for children with special health care needs. It will model the impact on private insurance uptake, health services utilization and government expenditure of providing private insurance premium support for this population. An in-depth analysis of one such program, the Michigan Children with Special Health Care Services Insurance Premium Payment Benefit Program, will be conducted to provide an evidence base to inform policy changes. Comparisons of health service utilization for children with special health care needs in the United States and Australia will be performed using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Study findings will be utilized in designing health care policy to benefit some of the most vulnerable children in both the U.S. and Australia.