Ron Andersen

Dr. Ronald Andersen, known as Ron Andersen, is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management at the Fielding School of Public Health and Sociology. He earned a Ph.D. from Purdue University. His 45-year career has focused on health services research, medical sociology, evaluation and policy research, with particular emphasis on access to medical care. Prior to joining UCLA in 1991, where he chaired the Department of Health Policy and Management, Andersen served as a professor at the University of Chicago, directing the Center for Health Administration Studies and the Graduate Program in Health Administration for ten years. In 1968, he developed the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, a seminal conceptual framework that has revolutionized studies of healthcare access and utilization worldwide. Revised multiple times, the model informs national and international research on healthcare costs and use among vulnerable populations, including minorities, low-income groups, children, women, the elderly, individuals with oral health needs, and the homeless. He has directed three national surveys on access to care and led numerous evaluations to promote greater access.

Andersen has authored 25 books and 240 articles addressing access issues. Key publications include 'A Decade of Health Services: Social Survey Trends in Use and Expenditure' with Odin W. Anderson (1967, University of Chicago Press), 'A Behavioral Model of Families' Use of Health Services' (1968, Center for Health Administration Studies, University of Chicago), 'Revisiting the Behavioral Model and Access to Medical Care: Does it Matter?' (1995, Journal of Health and Social Behavior), 'Changing the U.S. Health Care System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management' edited with Thomas Rice and Gerald Kominski (2007, third edition, Jossey-Bass), and 'National health surveys and the behavioral model of health services use' (2008, Medical Care). His honors include the Distinguished Medical Sociologist Leo G. Reeder Award, Distinguished Investigator Career Award from the Association for Health Services Research, Baxter Allegiance Foundation Health Services Research Prize, honorary doctorate from Purdue University, Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, membership in the Institute of Medicine, chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, and membership in the Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala, Sweden.

Professional Email: randerse@ucla.edu