December 15, 2025 | The Looming Trump Medicaid Cuts: Is There a Way Out for Oregon?

Hayden Rooke-Ley – Senior Fellow, Brown University School of Public Health & Fellow, American Economic Liberties Project

Hayden Rooke-Ley is a Senior Fellow for Health Law at Brown University’s School of Public Health, where his scholarship focuses on health care financing, consolidation and workforce policy. He is also a Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and a licensed attorney in Oregon.

John McConnell – Director, Center for Health Systems Effectiveness & Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, OHSU/PSU School of Public Health 

John McConnell, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness and Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine. John is a health economist who researches insurance and the financing and delivery of health care, with a focus on Medicaid and behavioral health services.

Sean Kolmer – Executive Vice President of External Affairs, Hospital Association of Oregon 

Sean Kolmer leads the advocacy and communications teams at the Hospital Association of Oregon, leveraging decades of experience in Oregon health care policy and politics to build coalitions and advance priority legislation for hospitals and their communities. He previously served as a senior advisor to Gov. John Kitzhaber and Gov. Kate Brown.

Jeremy Vandehey – Consultant 

Jeremy Vandehey is the former Oregon Market President for PacificSource and previously led the Health Policy and Analytics Division at OHA. He shaped major state reforms, including Medicaid waivers, revenue packages, the Cost Growth Target program and Oregon’s health market oversight efforts, and has advised governors and state agencies on policy and system design.