Timothy S. Jost is Robert L. Willett Family Professor of Law, emeritus, at

Washington and Lee University School of Law The Washington and Lee University School of Law (W&L Law) is the law school of Washington and Lee University, a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia. It is accredited by the American Bar Association. Facilities are on the histo ...

. A top expert on American health law and policy, he is a co-author of ''Health Law'' (first edition 1987), a casebook that pioneered health law as a teaching and research field in American law schools. His analysis and arguments regarding the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...

(ACA, Obamacare) have been widely quoted.

Education and career

Jost graduated from

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

in 1970, and received his J.D. from the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...

in 1975. He began his legal career at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, where he used litigation and policy reform to improve health care for residents of Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. From 1981 to 2001 he was a professor at the

Ohio State University Moritz College of Law The Michael E. Moritz College of Law is the Law school in the United States, law school of Ohio State University, a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1891, the school is ...

, and from 2001 to 2014 he was Robert L. Willett Family Professor of Law at Washington and Lee. As a two-time

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

, he visited

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Wolfson is an all-graduate college, it prides itself on being one of the most international colleges at Oxford, with part ...

in 1988–89 and the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

in 1996–97. He is the author or co-author of eleven books and over 150 articles, book chapters, and reviews. He was elected to the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

in 2011.

Affordable Care Act

When the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

became law in March 2010, it was the most consequential reform of the American health care system in over four decades. It was also an enormously complex piece of legislation, and one that faced immediate legal challenges. Beginning in 2009, Jost began contributing to a blog hosted by

Health Affairs ''Health Affairs'' is a monthly peer-reviewed healthcare journal established in 1981 by John K. Iglehart; since 2014, the editor-in-chief is Alan Weil. It was described by ''The Washington Post'' as "the bible of health policy". Abstracting a ...

, a leading health-policy journal, first following the course of the ACA through the legislative process and then explaining its provisions and associated regulations to academics, journalists, policymakers, lawyers, and other readers. Over eight years, Jost contributed over six hundred posts. Jost has also been widely quoted in the American media, including by

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, and other media. Jost also served as an advocate for the ACA in briefs presented to the Supreme Court during the cases King v. Burwell, House v. Burwell, and California v. Texas. In the words of Don Berwick, Administrator of the

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer ...

under Barack Obama, "Tim Jost is to American health care policy what a GPS is to a dark and unfamiliar road; what Carl Sagan was to astronomy; what Barbara Tuchman was to history. He makes the potentially inaccessible accessible."

Personal life

Jost is a member of Community Mennonite Church, a

Mennonite Church USA The Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the United States. Although the organization is a recent 2002 merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, the body has roots in the Radi ...

congregation in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is married to Ruth Stoltzfus Jost.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jost, Timothy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Washington and Lee University School of Law faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine University of California, Santa Cruz alumni University of Chicago Law School alumni