Joseph Benitez, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Dr. Joseph Benitez is a health economist studying Medicaid policy and Medicaid program design. Specifically, he investigates 1) Medicaid’s viability as a safety net program for transitional poverty, 2) variation in healthcare access within the Medicaid program, and 3) the effects of adverse social conditions on Medicaid spending. He has received funding for his research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AcademyHealth, as well as Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services. He has been a faculty member at the University of Kentucky since 2018, and was on the faculty at the University of Louisville from 2015-2018. From 2022-2023, he was a non-residential fellow working with KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured team. Dr. Benitez has a courtesy appointment in the department of Economics within UK’s Gatton College of Business and Economics. He is also a faculty affiliate for UK’s Center for Poverty Research, Center for Health Equity Transformation, the James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits, and Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies.

His research has been published in Health Affairs, Health Economics, Health Services Research, JAMA Health Forum, the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Medical Care, Medical Care Research and Review. He received his PhD in Health Policy from the University of Illinois Chicago, his MPH from the University of Kentucky, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia.