“I’ve always been really passionate about access to healthcare,” said Ranmali Bopitiya, the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Oscar, when reflecting on her career. “I’ve been single-mindedly focused on what to do to improve it. This country has so many opportunities, yet we do such a bad job of taking care of each other when people get sick. We have a huge rate of healthcare bankruptcy, and pre-ACA, the lack of access was abysmal,” she said. Growing up in an immigrant family, Ranmali was acutely aware of the opportunities in the US, as well as the limitations. One thing that struck her was that when people got sick, they were on their own unless they had decent health insurance. “I found that really hard to swallow,” she said.
Wanting to make a difference for patients in the US, Ranmali set out to pursue a career in medicine. When she was young, she volunteered at a clinic serving HIV and AIDS patients, and in El Salvador with Nursing Students Without Borders. She found this work inspiring, which only reaffirmed her fascination with healthcare. Soon, though, she began to realize that medicine may not be the right path for her: “When I was writing my applications for medical school, everything that I wrote about was about the system of healthcare, and how it’s broken,” Ranmali said. It made her realize that studying law and policy was what she really wanted to do. By becoming a lawyer and understanding how the healthcare system functioned, Ranmali could make the kind of impact she’d always wanted to. Right before beginning law school, she worked at a clinic called Charlottesville Free Clinic. “I wanted to deepen my understanding of how we care for those without insurance coverage,” she said. Her time there opened her eyes as to how people engage with the healthcare system in the US, and what can be done to advance it. From that point on, Ranmali was committed to improving the healthcare system for everyone in the US. She entered law school anchored by this mission, and maintained this focus, using it as a guiding point throughout her career.
“I knew the problem I wanted to work on,” Ranmali said, looking back on which jobs she chose to pursue. She worked at a law firm where she represented healthcare companies, providers, and hospital systems. She was able to fully ingrain herself in the system, and unpack the issues that fascinated her. She learned the ins and outs of the law, and gained an understanding of how it impacted providers in the real world. Later, when she began working in-house at healthcare companies, she was able to apply those skills, as well as her passion for healthcare, to really drive change. “I love problem-solving,” she said, “being a general counsel is a great fit for me.”