Tony Barrueta is senior vice president of Government Relations for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Hospitals. He is responsible for guiding the development of Kaiser Permanente's public policy positions. Barrueta leads a team of advocates and public policy professionals based in Oakland, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. who represent Kaiser Permanente before state and federal policymakers. He is also a member of the organization’s National Executive Team and chairs its Health Policy Committee.
Barrueta has held several positions in Kaiser Permanente’s Government Relations department. As vice president from 2003 to 2010, he advanced the organization’s positions in many policy areas, including Medicare, health insurance regulation, and health care reform. From 1994 to 2003, he served first as counsel and then senior counsel, providing state and federal legislative guidance as well as legal and policy guidance to the organization’s pharmacy leadership.
Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Barrueta was in private law practice in Washington, D.C., representing health care organizations, pharmacy benefit management companies, and trade associations before Congress and executive agencies.
Barrueta is the past chair and member of the board of directors of the Public Health Institute and serves on the boards of directors for the Alliance of Community Health Plans and the Health Care Transformation Task Force. He also participates on the Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Advisory Council and chairs the American Hospital Association’s Provider-led Health Plan Strategic Leadership Group. He previously served on the boards of directors for Enroll America, the East Bay Agency for Children and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States.
Barrueta received his undergraduate degree at Boston College and his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He is licensed to practice law in Maryland (inactive), California and the District of Columbia.