Petra W. Rasmussen

Petra W. Rasmussen (she/her) is an associate policy researcher at RAND. Her research focuses on health care coverage in the United States, including examining consumer insurance decision-making, tracking the implementation and effects of federal and state health policies, and evaluating gaps in health care access and use. She has over ten years of experience conducting policy research, including as a member of the California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) microsimulation model team at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, where she supported efforts estimating the effects of coverage-related policies on insurance enrollment in California, and as the senior research associate in health care coverage and access at The Commonwealth Fund. Throughout her career, Dr. Rasmussen has conducted analyses using national, state, and private survey data, as well as large insurance enrollment and claims databases. In addition to her quantitative analysis expertise, Rasmussen is trained in mixed methods research and has conducted semi-structured interviews and program evaluations. She has also led several environmental scans investigating topics such as the quality of Medicare programs, the value of health plans, measures of social determinants of health, alternative payment models for workers’ compensation programs, and public funding sources for transition-age foster youth.

Rasmussen completed her Ph.D. in health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She also has a bachelor's degree from Duke University and an M.P.H. in health policy and management from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.