The North Carolina Justice Center is a progressive research and advocacy organization dedicated to expanding opportunity and protecting the rights of low-income individuals in North Carolina. For over 25 years, the Justice Center has been on the front lines in the courts, at the legislature, in the media, and in communities advocating for positive changes for poor and working North Carolinians. The Justice Center has played a primary role in most of the state’s major policy debates and successfully litigated hundreds of individual cases and class actions. 

The Health Advocacy Project works to ensure all North Carolinians have meaningful access to high quality, affordable, equitable, and comprehensive health care so that children, adults, and families have better health outcomes and productive lives. 

Some of the Project’s goals include expanding and protecting access to health services for families who have low and moderate incomes, securing health care policies that prioritize the well-being of North Carolina consumers, empowering community members to become health care advocates, and promoting the consumer perspective on state and federal health care policy. 

The Role 

The North Carolina Justice Center is seeking a full-time Staff Attorney for the Health Advocacy Project (HAP) with substantive expertise in health policy including Medicaid, Managed Care and the Affordable Care Act, and experience with NC legislative, regulatory, and administrative advocacy with state agencies. The position will involve a range of health policies, with an initial focus on medical debt and Medicaid expansion implementation. The attorney will monitor and analyze legal, policy, and advocacy health policy strategies promulgated at the federal or state level. Together with other HAP team members, the attorney will create and recommend policy solutions and strategies to advance equity and access to quality health care in North Carolina, especially the most impacted--people with low incomes, who live with disabilities, older adults, and children. The HAP team members’ policy work will also be informed by representation of individual impacted individuals, with the team member handling a helpline and potentially a small caseload in collaboration with experienced NCJC litigation team members. 

• Research, propose and advocate for reforms, policies and programs that support the healthcare needs of North Carolinians while providing policy support to the team, the Justice Center, and partners. 

· Analyze laws, administrative rules, draft proposed legislation and amendments, and other relevant material.

· Compile data and conduct legal research and analysis for HAP team members and partners.

• Publish policy reports and memos, briefs, op-eds, legislative bulletins, fact sheets, and other documents as assigned and perform critical data analysis and review of team member’s written work. 

• Serve as a health care policy expert, present findings and recommendations to policymakers, partner organizations, community groups and leaders and the media. 

· Provide legal and technical support to private and legal aid lawyers, consumer advocates and government officials.

· Lead workshops and training sessions for lawyers and advocates.

• Research and compile useful data from literature, census data, polls, survey, and governmental reports to evaluate the impact of proposed health care policies on access, affordability and ensuring equity. 

• Track and monitor federal/state health care policy actions that impact Medicaid programs and other relevant health care policies such as healthcare delivery and costs, in federal/state legislative, executive and judicial branches. 

· Present testimony before the NC Legislature and advocate before NC state agencies.

· Contribute to fundraising efforts; develop and maintain relationships with existing and potential supporters.

· Perform other duties as may be assigned

Qualifications

• J.D. and admitted to the North Carolina Bar or eligible for admission.

• A minimum of three years of professional experience analyzing, writing, and researching policy in healthcare, health law or related field.

• Written and oral communication skills[JC1] [JL2] .

• Able to juggle competing demands while responding to externally imposed short deadlines.

• Substantive expertise in health policy including, knowledge of coverage programs including the Affordable Care Act and North Carolina Medicaid including managed care, and medical debt issues.

• Knowledge or ability to learn federal, state, and local government and functions. 

• Ability to perform legal research using appropriate methods of approach and source materials.

• Ability to prepare opinions and draft legal and legislative documents 

• Ability to understand and interpret constitutional provision, statutes, administrative rules, and legal precedents.

• Ability to analyze facts, evidence and legal instruments and develop legal theories based on that analysis.

• Demonstrated commitment to social justice and experience working with low-income individuals preferably in North Carolina.

• Demonstrated commitment to racial equity

• Some travel, evening, and weekend work.