Kristen Golden Testa |
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Kristen Golden Testa's unwavering commitment to advancing health equity is the cornerstone of her career.
Kristen's passion and dedication to ensuring access to quality healthcare for all, focusing on marginalized populations, led her to establish Golden Policy Consulting. Because Medicaid is a primary source of health coverage for many marginalized populations, Kristen’s federal and California policy strategy and advocacy center on the potential of Medicaid as an agent for equity, emphasizing quality and access to Medicaid coverage and care. She also works at the health coverage policy intersection with community engagement and upstream drivers of health.
Kristen focuses on administrative and legislative healthcare policy analysis, strategy, and advocacy at the federal and state (California) level, to ensure healthcare insurance programs, such as Medicaid, work better to equitably serve individuals, their families, and their communities. She works with organizations, agencies, and philanthropy on their policy objectives and strategies, leveraging her experience and relationships in healthcare policy while integrating community voices.
During her time with The Children's Partnership, a California-based nonprofit child advocacy organization, Kristen served as the Health Policy Director, in which she developed and advanced policies to increase coverage enrollment, including (1) in 2015 helping to expand Medi-Cal coverage for all low-income children in California regardless of immigration status, which was part of a larger immigrant rights goal of providing coverage for all low-income Californians regardless of immigration status–Health4All; (2) advancing of a new policy to streamline Medicaid enrollment through enrollment in other social programs–called "Express Lane Eligibility,” which was piloted in California and became a federal Medicaid policy option; (3) protecting children from intentional barriers to keeping their coverage, by successfully thwarting California’s attempt to impose more frequent coverage renewal hurdles; and (4) mostly recently, playing a lead in a coalition’s successful effort to enact and fund multi-year continuous Medi-Cal coverage protections for children ages 0 to 5.
When Kristen moved to California in 2000, she joined the California Health and Human Services Agency as a political appointee as the Assistant Secretary on Programs and Fiscal Affairs, overseeing the Medi-Cal and former Healthy Families programs and several other health-related agencies. During her tenure, Kristen implemented a legislated process for assessing universal coverage proposals and advanced Medi-Cal reforms to protect and improve coverage access by streamlining Medi-Cal enrollment.
Before her tenure in California, Kristen served as the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance–Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), focused on Medicaid. Her role as an expert to the Senate on Medicaid policy was instrumental in the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a significant milestone in healthcare policy. Kristen also played a pivotal role in designing and passing Medicaid policy reforms in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and in the passage of the “Ticket to Work” policy, allowing workers with disabilities to maintain their Medicaid coverage while working.
She received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University and her master's in Health Science from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene. From 2005 to 2006, she served as the Packer Policy Fellow, which aimed to promote health policy exchange and collaboration between Australia and the United States.
Kristen's passion and dedication to ensuring access to quality healthcare for all, focusing on marginalized populations, led her to establish Golden Policy Consulting. Because Medicaid is a primary source of health coverage for many marginalized populations, Kristen’s federal and California policy strategy and advocacy center on the potential of Medicaid as an agent for equity, emphasizing quality and access to Medicaid coverage and care. She also works at the health coverage policy intersection with community engagement and upstream drivers of health.
Kristen focuses on administrative and legislative healthcare policy analysis, strategy, and advocacy at the federal and state (California) level, to ensure healthcare insurance programs, such as Medicaid, work better to equitably serve individuals, their families, and their communities. She works with organizations, agencies, and philanthropy on their policy objectives and strategies, leveraging her experience and relationships in healthcare policy while integrating community voices.
During her time with The Children's Partnership, a California-based nonprofit child advocacy organization, Kristen served as the Health Policy Director, in which she developed and advanced policies to increase coverage enrollment, including (1) in 2015 helping to expand Medi-Cal coverage for all low-income children in California regardless of immigration status, which was part of a larger immigrant rights goal of providing coverage for all low-income Californians regardless of immigration status–Health4All; (2) advancing of a new policy to streamline Medicaid enrollment through enrollment in other social programs–called "Express Lane Eligibility,” which was piloted in California and became a federal Medicaid policy option; (3) protecting children from intentional barriers to keeping their coverage, by successfully thwarting California’s attempt to impose more frequent coverage renewal hurdles; and (4) mostly recently, playing a lead in a coalition’s successful effort to enact and fund multi-year continuous Medi-Cal coverage protections for children ages 0 to 5.
When Kristen moved to California in 2000, she joined the California Health and Human Services Agency as a political appointee as the Assistant Secretary on Programs and Fiscal Affairs, overseeing the Medi-Cal and former Healthy Families programs and several other health-related agencies. During her tenure, Kristen implemented a legislated process for assessing universal coverage proposals and advanced Medi-Cal reforms to protect and improve coverage access by streamlining Medi-Cal enrollment.
Before her tenure in California, Kristen served as the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance–Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), focused on Medicaid. Her role as an expert to the Senate on Medicaid policy was instrumental in the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a significant milestone in healthcare policy. Kristen also played a pivotal role in designing and passing Medicaid policy reforms in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and in the passage of the “Ticket to Work” policy, allowing workers with disabilities to maintain their Medicaid coverage while working.
She received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University and her master's in Health Science from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene. From 2005 to 2006, she served as the Packer Policy Fellow, which aimed to promote health policy exchange and collaboration between Australia and the United States.
