Dorothy Rice, a pioneering government economist and statistician whose research about the need of the aged for health insurance helped make the case for the passage of Medicare in 1965, died on Feb. 25 in Oakland, Calif. She was 94. Her son Tom said the cause was complications of a broken hip resulting from a fall.
Government Service Leads to Seminal Contributions in Health Economics, Health Statistics
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1941, Rice began working as a government economist in Washington, DC. In the 1960s and 1970s, she began to specialize in health services, contributing to the Social Security Administration, Public Health Service, and Office of Research and Statistics, among others.
UCSF Career Expands Contributions to Understanding the Costs of Illness
After leaving government in 1982, Rice embarked on a second career as an academic researcher at UCSF. Her work on the Cost of Injury in the United States (1989) provided further insights into the impact of behavior on costs.
The Dorothy Pechman Rice Center for Health Economics and Beyond
In 1998, to honor Rice’s contributions to public health, UCSF established the Dorothy Pechman Rice Center for Health Economics, within the Institute for Health & Aging.
Pioneering Leadership, Generous Mentorship
A born leader, Rice assumed leadership roles in nearly every aspect of her life. She chaired and served on numerous commissions; local, state, national and international boards; policy committees; and study groups.
Early life
Rice was born Dorothy Pechman in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on June 11, 1922. Her father, Gershon, was a textile laborer, and her mother, the former Lena Schiff, was a homemaker. Both were immigrants from Poland. Raised in Brooklyn, she attended Brooklyn College for a year and a half.
Career
After graduating, Rice did not attend graduate school. Instead, she was determined to work for the federal government in Washington, D.C. Rice obtained employment at the Railroad Retirement Board and quickly moved up to the Department of Labor, as an assistant statistical clerk, and the War Production Board.
Awards
Rice was elected to the Institute of Medicine. She became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1977. She received the Association for Health Services Presidential Award for Leadership and Contribution to Health Services Research. She also received the American Public Health Association Sedgwick Memorial Medal.
UCSF Career Expands Contributions to Understanding The Costs of Illness
The Dorothy Pechman Rice Center For Health Economics and Beyond
- In 1998, to honor Rice’s contributions to public health, UCSF established the Dorothy Pechman Rice Center for Health Economics, within the Institute for Health & Aging. The center recognizes her life and work, provides a forum to present a historical reflection, offers public education on the impacts of her work, and honors her research legacy by establishing a fund in her name; activitie…
Pioneering Leadership, Generous Mentorship
- A born leader, Rice assumed leadership roles in nearly every aspect of her life. She chaired and served on numerous commissions; local, state, national and international boards; policy committees; and study groups. She prepared reports to Congress and presented papers on various subjects related to health and statistical policy to hundreds of national and international …
Overview
Dorothy P. Rice (June 11, 1922 – February 25, 2017) was an American health statistician whose work contributed to the creation of Medicare in the United States. Rice graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and began working with the US government soon after, but left the workforce to begin raising a child. Just over a decade later, she returned to government work with a position at the Social Security Administration, where she was one of the first scientists to …
Career
After graduating, Rice did not attend graduate school. Instead, she was determined to work for the federal government in Washington, D.C. Rice obtained employment at the Railroad Retirement Board and quickly moved up to the Department of Labor, as an assistant statistical clerk, and the War Production Board. Rice married Jim Rice in 1943 and left her job to be with him in Camp Grant, Illinois. Needing a job, she started assembling parts at a combined plumbing and munitions fac…
Early life
Rice was born Dorothy Pechman in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on June 11, 1922. Her father, Gershon, was a textile laborer, and her mother, the former Lena Schiff, was a homemaker. Both were immigrants from Poland. Raised in Brooklyn, she attended Brooklyn College for a year and a half. She took up an offer from her brother to finish her collegiate work in Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, something she credited with changing her life, after he receiv…
Awards
Rice was elected to the Institute of Medicine. She became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1977. She received the Association for Health Services Presidential Award for Leadership and Contribution to Health Services Research. She also received the American Public Health Association Sedgwick Memorial Medal. In 2013, Rice received the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research. The New York Times said of her career that she was "a pioneerin…
Further reading
• Robbins, Anthony; Freeman, Phyllis (2017). "In Memorium: Dorothy Rice (1922–2017)". Journal of Public Health Policy. 38 (3): 380–83. doi:10.1057/s41271-017-0080-1. PMID 28630400. S2CID 35321599.
External links
• Department of Social Security: Research and Analysis by Dorothy P. Rice
• Online Archive of California: Guide to the Dorothy P. Rice Papers, 1974–1997