William M. Sage
Class of 2016-17
The University of Texas at Austin
National Academy of Medicine
The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas
Known as an expert in national health care reform, including market principles driving access to health care, William M. Sage is a leading authority and lecturer on the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and other critical issues at the center of today’s health care debate.
In 1993, Sage served in the Clinton White House as a cluster leader of the Health Care Working Group for the President’s Task Force on Health Care Reform.
He received a bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University, and between 1982 and 1988, Sage earned two doctorates from Stanford University: a medical degree, garnering research honors in anesthesia and critical care medicine, and a law degree, serving as the note editor for the Stanford Law Review.
Sage served his residency in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University in 1989–90. In 1990 he joined the Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny & Myers as an associate in the corporations department.
In 1995, Sage joined the law school faculty at Columbia University as an associate professor and became a full professor in 2001. In 2006, he moved to The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence. He served as vice provost for health affairs from 2006 to 2013.
Sage received an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1998 and an honorary doctorate from Paris Descartes University in 2011, where he has served as a visiting professor since 2013.
He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center and the New York Academy of Medicine and an honorary fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine.
In 2001, he served as a visiting professor at Duke University’s School of Law, the University of Minnesota Law School and School of Public Health in 2003, Harvard Law School in 2007, and Yale Law School in 2013. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine from 1991 to 1992 and the University of Southern California School of Medicine from 1991 to 1995.
Sage has co-written four books, including The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Health Law, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. He has published more than eighty articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He has published chapters in more than twenty books and has written commentaries for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Austin American-Statesman.
As a Faculty Fellow in the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, Sage will collaborate with faculty–researchers in the School of Public Health, the College of Medicine, the Bush School of Government and Public Service, and the School of Law.