Perspectives on Health Reform

Perspectives on Health Care Reform: Interview with Jane Perkins

This series features advocates whose careers have contributed to the expansion of low-income clients' access to health care. 

Cindy Mann

Cindy Mann has served as the director of the Center for Medicaid, CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) and Survey & Certification (CMCS) within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) since June 2009. As CMS deputy administrator and director of CMCS, Mann is responsible for the development and implementation of national policies governing Medicaid, CHIP, the agency's provider survey, and certification activities. CMCS also serves as the focal point for all CMS interactions with state and local governments and the territories. Before returning to CMS in 2009, Mann served as director of the Family and Children's Health Programs Group in the CMS (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)) Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO), where she played a key role in implementing the State Children's Health Insurance Program and led the CMSO's broader work on Medicaid policies affecting children and families. Before joining HCFA in 1999, Mann directed the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' federal and state health policy work. She also has extensive state-level experience, having worked on health care, welfare, and public finance issues in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. Mann holds a law degree from the New York University of Law. Mann was interviewed last November.

A transcript of our interview with Mann is available in the March-April 2011 issue of Clearinghouse Review.

Readers may also be interested in downloading a podcast of the interview (8MB)

Jane Perkins

Jane Perkins is the litigation director of the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Focusing on Medicaid, particularly on the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment program and discrimination in the delivery of health care, court access, and disability rights, she engaged in litigation and policy advocacy, manages NHeLP's litigation docket, and has written manuals, fact sheets, and numerous articles on Medicaid, civil rights, and federal court access. She is a regular contributor to Clearinghouse Review and a member of the Review's editorial advisory board. 

A transcript of our interview with Jane is available in the July-August 2010 issue of Clearinghouse Review.

Readers may also be interested in downloading a podcast of the interview. (13MB)

John Bouman

John Bouman, president and advocacy director of the Shriver Center, spearheaded statewide efforts in Illinois to create both the FamilyCare program, which provides health care insurance for up to up to 400,000 working poor parents of minor children, and All Kids, the first state plan to extend health coverage to every child. He has consulted and co-counseled with advocates in many states; helped draft numerous pieces of legislation; given hundreds of presentations; published extensively; and served as counsel in numerous federal and state cases, including Memisovski v. Maram, which established substantial reforms in children's health care in Illinois.

Watch a video interview of John Bouman talking about health care reform.