Internship Location: Madison, WI
Organization Type: State Government
Policy Areas: Health
Over the 2023 spring semester, I worked as a Health Policy Intern for the Office of Strategic Health Policy within the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds. The office runs the Group Health Insurance Program (GHIP), which provides health, wellness, dental and vision, accident, pharmaceutical, and life insurance and services to over 200,000 active and retired state employees. In my role as an intern for GHIP, I researched and analyzed health policy topics that impacted the GHIP’s covered population, authored memorandums, and developed intervention recommendations. Health policy topics included pay-for-performance initiatives, centers of excellence, and rising pharmaceutical costs. Outside of these tasks, the main focus of my internship was helping to create an intervention plan to increase the utilization of the program’s High-Deductible Health Plan. I believe that this experience allowed me to draw and build upon many of the skills that I have gained from La Follette coursework, such as PA 873: Introduction to Policy Analysis and PA 878: Introduction to Public Management. I also appreciated the opportunity to see the inner workings of a government organization and experience all of the complications that are typically associated with being a bureaucrat. Overall, I had an amazing experience working for GHIP. My supervisors were great mentors, they helped me learn about a variety of health policy topics, and they frequently provided me with useful and informative feedback.