Rashi Fein

Rashi Fein, Litt.D., Ph.D., (1926-2014), a famed health economist termed 'a father of Medicare', was Professor of Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the author of "Medical Care, Medical Costs: The Search for a Health Insurance Policy". Rashi Fein began his service to the United States during World War II, in the US Navy. He spent much of his time after that thinking and writing about health care reform. He was a member of the Truman Commission on the Health Care Needs of the Nation, which as early as 1952 had supported national health insurance and regionalization of health care delivery. Later, he served on President Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors as a senior staff member. There, he helped to develop the initial legislation for Medicare, a healthcare model he continued to advocate throughout his life. Professor Fein had also served on the Board of the Committee for National Health Insurance under the leadership of former UAW President Doug Fraser and under Walter Reuther on a Board investigating malnutrition in the United States. He was a charter member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), had received numerous honors for service in medical economcis, and sat on boards of a number of not-for-profit health care institutions. He had authored nine books, the most recent of which was Lessons Learned: Medicine, Economics and Public Policy, published in November 2009. In 1982, he published "What Is Wrong with the Language of Medicine?" in the New England Journal of Medicine.