AMERICAN POLITICAL ECONOMY EXCHANGE (APEX) EVENT
Please join us for a special luncheon event being hosted by the APEX program on April 1st at ISPS. Miranda Yaver from the University of Pittsburgh will be presenting her book, Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A. The event is being moderated by APEX Director and Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Jacob Hacker.
PLEASE RSVP TO RESERVE LUNCH: https://isps.yale.edu/form/apex-book-event-with-miranda-yaver-rsvp.
Book Synopsis: Tens of millions of medical claims are denied by health insurers every year, but we still know astonishing little about this practice. Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States offers the first comprehensive analysis of health insurance coverage denials: the political decisions that facilitate this role for health insurers, the scope of this health policy problem, and how these decisions disrupt patients’ health and economic security and deepen inequities in the United States. Health insurance coverage denials are often, though not exclusively through prior authorization (or pre-approval for health care), which proliferated with the growth of managed care and the privatization of the formerly public areas of health insurance (e.g., Medicare Advantage). Anchoring original survey research in patient and physician storytelling, Coverage Denied shows that though coverage denials do not in themselves discriminate, they deepen inequities because of the administrative burdens of appealing denials, and the health literacy demands of navigating the American health care system.
Miranda Yaver is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh, where she holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. Her research focuses on administrative burdens and inequities in U.S. health insurance, as well as the politics of health reform. Her forthcoming book Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States (Cambridge University Press 2026) examines how health insurance coverage denials exacerbate health and economic disparities through the imposition of administrative burdens of appealing. Her research has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Scientific Reports, and Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, with additional health politics writing appearing in such outlets as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Hill. In addition to her academic appointment, she is co-leader of the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network and is the 2025 Author-in-Residence at The Roosevelt Institute. She received her PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.