Niko Perez, will be graduating this May 2020, majoring in Economics and Public Policy. Below Perez describes his experience over the summer as an intern at the Massachusetts Health Connector in Boston as a health policy analyst.“The Massachusetts Health Connector, created in 2006, was the first Exchange marketplace in the United States and was established to provide low-income families and individuals without employer insurance with affordable and accessible health insurance.
One of the most rewarding projects I worked on this summer was creating a key policy metrics report that emphasized the social determinants of health. The social determinants of health are the physical and social conditions that individuals are born into and live with that can heavily impact an individual’s health status and ability to afford healthcare treatment. Examples of these factors include housing, education, access to nutritious foods and economic stability.
The entire process involved intricate and original research, months of collaboration with policy and non-policy team members, and a final presentation to the policy team during which I advised a strategic plan for addressing health inequities in the Exchange marketplace to consider affordability more holistically.”
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