I became inspired to do policy research while working for elected officials and a political candidate, and seeing firsthand the need for valid research to inform policymaking. I think access to affordable quality health care is one of the most important policy challenges, and I find it gratifying to work toward that goal.
Victoria Lynch is a senior research associate in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She is a survey methodologist with in-depth understanding of public policy on Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and other health insurance. Since joining Urban in 2009, much of her analytical focus has involved building eligibility simulation models for Medicaid and CHIP, including ones for adults and children under current US law, one for children under the Affordable Care Act, and one for all ages in Puerto Rico in 2011 as well as under hypothetical statehood. In addition to publishing results from analyses based on these models, Lynch presents on the results and techniques of using survey data to study health insurance policy. Her current research also includes evaluating the validity of survey-based measures for patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) for children and developing a more robust PCMH measure.
Before joining Urban, Lynch worked as a consultant to the US Census Bureau on projects to integrate data from multiple administrative and survey sources. She was also a political appointee, working in the White House and the US Department of Labor.
Lynch received her MS in survey methodology in 2006 from the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, run by the University of Maryland, University of Michigan, and Westat.