Dorothy Rice, professor emerita of heath economics in the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco and an early proponent of the Medicare system, died late last month in Oakland, California, after suffering a broken hip resulting from a fall. She was 94 years old.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Professor Rice earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Wisconsin. After earning her degree in 1941, she worked for the federal government conducting health related research at the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Office of Research and Statistics. In 1976, she was named director of the National Center for Health Statistics.
Professor Rice joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco in 1982. During her long career, Professor Rice conducted major studies on the economic costs to society of smoking, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. In 1998, the university established the Dorothy Pechman Rice Center for Health Economics in its Institute for Health & Aging.