Internship-Expanding Coverage and Access: Medicare Program

The Organization

The Commonwealth Fund — among the first private foundations started by a woman philanthropist, Anna M. Harkness — was established in 1918 with the broad charge to enhance the common good. Today, the mission of The Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, greater equity, and increased efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. An international program in health policy is designed to stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries. The Commonwealth Fund has made a commitment to become an antiracist organization. That commitment extends not only to our research agenda, our grantmaking, and our communications, but also to all aspects of our internal operations.

Our Values and Commitment to Equity

The Commonwealth Fund envisions a health care system that values and benefits all people equally — one that combats racism and pursues equity, in treatment and outcomes as well as in leadership and decision-making. We believe this requires an alliance of people and institutions across society working together to recognize and value the lived experience of all individuals; ensure the delivery of compassionate, affordable, quality health care; and strive for equitable outcomes for all.

We aspire to racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in how we work. We place great value on the varied backgrounds and experiences our staff bring to our organization and encourage employees to bring their full selves to the workplace. We look for talented, nimble, empathetic, and supportive team players who are ready to roll up their sleeves, create impactful change, and celebrate accomplishments.

Program Summary

Expanding Coverage and Access

The U.S. health system is characterized by considerable geographic variation on insurance coverage, access to care, health status, quality of care, and the cost of care. It also lags other economically advanced countries by varying degrees in most of these areas. This means that some regions of the U.S. not only lag behind other regions on health performance indicators, they lag even further behind other economically advanced countries than national averages suggest.

In the area of insurance coverage, the Affordable Care Act improved overall U.S. performance relative to other countries and narrowed differences between some states. It also narrowed historical race and income inequities in coverage and reduced state differences in people’s access to care and consumer financial problems stemming from uncovered health care encounters. In addition, there is consistent evidence that the coverage expansions led to improved reported health status in some states, a key indicator of mortality. The law’s provisions in the area of health care quality and cost were less sweeping than those in coverage but resulted in important improvements.

Despite these ACA-related gains, the U.S. still lags significantly behind other countries on health care indicators and large differences remain between states. More than 25 million people remain uninsured, nearly a quarter of working age adults have insurance plans that are leaving them underinsured, the country has a growing consumer medical debt crisis, and health care costs are growing faster than median income in most states. In addition, over the last decade, the U.S has experienced an unprecedented decline in life expectancy driven in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid use epidemic. With the end of the federal protections implemented during the pandemic, millions of people are expected to lose insurance coverage with a large number projected to become uninsured.

In order to help meet these challenges, the Expanding Coverage & Access research initiative conducts extramural and intramural research on the extent and quality of insurance, health care access and financial problems stemming from inadequate coverage and health system performance at the national and state, including examining and developing policy options aimed at improving performance.

The program and research initiative seek to educate and inform policy makers, the media, health system leaders and practitioners, community leaders, and the public. We accomplish this by tracking and assessing health system performance in the areas of coverage and access, costs, quality of care, health outcomes, and equity at the national, state, and local levels. This includes developing and monitoring policies aimed at improving performance. The team also collaborates with other Fund programs on publications and products that support the Funds priorities.

Medicare

For over five decades, Medicare has helped older adults and people with disabilities obtain the health care they need while protecting them from severe financial hardship. The Commonwealth Fund’s Advancing Medicare initiative identifies ways in which this crucial program―the largest single payer of health care services in the United States―can serve its beneficiaries more effectively and efficiently while helping to foster health system improvements nationwide.

Medicare has enormous capacity to leverage broader change in U.S. health care. Nearly 60 million people over 65 and disabled Americans access care through the program, which accounts for a large and growing share of the federal budget (the government spends $700 billion on Medicare benefits annually, accounting for over 18 percent of total federal non-interest spending). And with the creation of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Medicare plays a critical role in the development, implementation, evaluation, and spread of innovative models of health care organization, delivery, and payment—not only for Medicare, but for other federal and state health insurance programs as well as private payers. The Fund and its grantees will examine how Medicare can:

• Improve access to affordable care needed by people over 65 and those with disabilities
• Increase simplicity to ensure that beneficiaries are able to navigate the choices and options available to them through Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D
• Restrain the growth of federal program costs 
• Improve coordination between Medicare and other public programs, particularly Medicaid

Drive improvements in other areas of the health system through innovations in care delivery and provider payment

Internship Description

The Commonwealth Fund is seeking an intern to support program activities that support the Medicare portfolio including supporting a collaborative of foundations, assisting with Fund-supported work, conducting background research on Medicare policy topics for meeting and presentations, and helping to promote and share Fund-supported work with policy makers and the Medicare policy community.

Specific Activities the Intern would Undertake Include

• Support the launch of a new collaborative of foundations focused on improving long-term care, including conducting background research, preparing briefing materials, tracking relevant developments, and assisting with meeting preparation and follow-up. 
• Assist with Fund-supported surveys and other Fund-supported products by creating tables, checking data for accuracy, conducting descriptive analyses, preparing data summaries for internal and external use, and drafting summaries. 
• Conduct literature reviews, prepare research summaries, synthesize evidence from Fund-supported grants and the broader literature to support the program staff in developing background materials for meetings, proposals, presentations, and publications.
• Assist with outreach and social media presence to promote Fund-supported work. 
• Track grantmaking impact and effectiveness, including assisting with maintaining grant records, monitoring timeliness and tracking grantee products, and assisting with meeting preparation. 
• Support other team members on the Expanding Coverage and Access team, as requested.

Related Skills & Other Requirements

• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Exceptional attention to detail and task follow-through
• Sound judgement and discretion
• Ability to prioritize, multi-task and meet competing deadlines
• Strong computer skills with proficiency in Microsoft Office: Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Qualifications  

Candidates for this internship must be a student in a master’s or doctoral degree program.  

Time

This position will be 15-20 hours per week, starting in September 2026 and ending in May 2027.

Stipend

The intern will receive a stipend of $28 per hour.

Location

The position is located in our Washington, DC office but may be remote.