Michael Chaitkin is an independent health policy and financing specialist with 12+ years of experience in applied research, policy analysis, and project management. He consults for global health and development organizations that support countries to undertake reforms in pursuit of universal health coverage. He also teaches graduate-level health financing at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
His research and advisory activities focus on the design, implementation, and reform of publicly financed health coverage schemes, including through strategic health purchasing and evidence-informed priority setting. He also works on the sustainability, integration, and transition of donor-funded programs including for HIV, family planning, malaria, tuberculosis, and neglected tropical diseases.
Prior to becoming a Fellow, Mr. Chaitkin was a full-time member of R4D’s health practice for nearly five years. During that time, he served as the health financing lead for USAID’s Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases | East program and managed R4D’s work in South Africa and Vietnam under USAID’s Health Finance & Governance Project. He also co-led R4D’s portfolio on sustainability, integration, and transition, overseeing a more than doubling of revenue between 2016 and 2020.
Before joining R4D, Mr Chaitkin consulted for the World Bank and Futures Group (now Palladium), contributing to research and tools to better understand health financing systems, the health and fiscal impacts of expanding insurance coverage for contraception in Ghana, and the equity of access to reproductive and maternal health services during the MDGs era. He previously served as special assistant to the chief economist for sustainable development at the World Bank, where he launched and managed the Green Growth Knowledge Platform, and he was a Luce Scholar at Renmin University in Beijing.
Mr. Chaitkin holds an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a BA in international relations with honors in international security studies from Stanford University.
