SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
“What’s in There? The New Health Reform Law and Private Insurance”
April 30, 2010
GARY CLAXTON is a vice president and the director of the Health Care Marketplace Project at the
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The project provides information, research, and analysis about
trends in the health care market and about policy proposals that relate to health insurance reform
and our changing health care system. Prior to joining the foundation, Mr. Claxton worked as a
senior researcher at the Institute for Health Care Research and Policy at Georgetown University,
where his research focused on health insurance and health care financing. From March 1997 until
January 2001, he served as the deputy assistant secretary for health policy at the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, where he advised the secretary on health policy issues including
improving access to health insurance, Medicare reform, administration of Medicaid, financing of
prescription drugs, expanding patient rights and health care privacy. Other previous positions
include serving as a consultant for the Lewin Group, a special assistant to the deputy assistant
secretary for health policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, an
insurance analyst for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and a health policy
analyst for AARP.
SCOTT KEEFER serves as vice president of policy development for the Center for Policy and
Research at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). His mission is to help policymakers and
AHIP members develop innovative, market-based proposals to improve and expand access to health
insurance coverage. Before joining AHIP, Mr. Keefer was legislative director for Congressman
Harold Ford, Jr. In that position, he served as principal policy adviser, supervised the legislative
staff, and had primary responsibility for health care, budget and tax, and trade issues. Earlier, he
worked on Capital Hill from 1994-1996 as a legislative assistant to former Congressman Harold
Ford, Sr., where he was responsible for issues considered by the House Ways and Means
Committee. Mr. Keefer has also worked in the Office of U.S. District Judge Robert Cindrich, for
the Environmental Protection Agency, and at a law firm where he helped represent clients on health
and environmental claims. He earned his Juris Doctor from Duquesne University School of Law
and a B.A. in political science from Washington and Jefferson College.
CHRISTOPHER KOLLER became Rhode Island's first health insurance commissioner in March 2005.
The Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner is responsible for health insurance consumer
protection, the financial solvency of the state’s domestic health insurers, the fair treatment of
providers by insurers, and directing health insurers towards policies that improve the accessibility,
affordability and quality of Rhode Island’s health care system. In this role, Mr. Koller also
coordinates the health policy agenda of the administration of Governor Donald Carcieri and is an
assistant professor of community health in the Program in Public Health at Brown University. Prior
to this position, Mr. Koller was the CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, a
nationally recognized community health center-based Medicaid health plan. In this role he was the
founding chair of the Association of Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP). Mr. Koller has a
bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and master's degrees in management and religion from
Yale University.