The Economics of Health Equity - Health Policy Grand Rounds

"Is health equity compatible with a market-based health care system?  Our current health care system encourages inequities, but it can be modified to promote health equity."

Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD MS is the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy and Director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Gaskin is a health services researcher and health economist. He is an internationally recognized expert in health and healthcare disparities. He seeks to identify and understand how contextual factors influence access to care, quality of care and health outcomes for minority, low socioeconomic status, and other vulnerable populations. His research strives to develop and promulgate policies and practices that address the social determinants of health and promote equity in health and well-being.

Dr. Gaskin is a leader in health economics and policy. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves on the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Health Advisors and the Board of Directors of the American Society of Health Economists. He has served in leadership roles in AcademyHealth, the American Public Health Association, the National Academy for State Health Policy, and the National Economics Association. He is a 2019 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Dr. Gaskin has a Ph.D. in public health economics from the Johns Hopkins University. He holds a MS degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA degree in economics from Brandeis University. Dr. Gaskin is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He served as Pastor of the Beth Shalom AME Zion Church in Clinton, MD from 1991 to 2023.