Healthcare: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going

This program will discuss the history of our healthcare system, the Affordable Care Act, and where we go from here. Many believe the US healthcare system is broken and needs fixing. Two health policy experts will discuss the issues, challenges, and opportunities.

Speakers:

Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992.  He is also the former Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the former President of the American Society of Health Economists and the Eastern Economics Association.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Econometric Society  He has published more than 180 research articles, has edited six research volumes, and is the author of Public Finance and Public Policy, a leading undergraduate text in its 7^th edition, Health Care Reform, a graphic novel, and Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream (with Simon Johnson).  In 2006 he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. During the 1997-1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. From 2003-2006 he was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort.  During 2009-2010 he served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the Administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  In 2011 he was named “One of the Top 25 Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time” by Slate Magazine.  In both 2006 and 2012 he was rated as one of the top 100 most powerful people in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine.  In 2020 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Joel Cantor, moderator/discussant, is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and the founding Director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Established 1999, the Center is a leader in health policy research nationally, with a special focus on informing policy in New Jersey. Dr. Cantor has published widely on innovations in health service financing and delivery for high-need populations and the regulation of health insurance and services.  He serves frequently as an advisor on health policy matters to New Jersey state government and was awarded the 2006 Rutgers University President’s Award for Research in Service to New Jersey.   Dr. Cantor currently leads a study funded by the National Institutes of Health examining Medicaid service use and spending for people experiencing homelessness and evaluating the impact of Permanent Supportive Housing on racial/ethnic and rural disparities in Medicaid outcomes.  He also leads the of the New Jersey Population Health Cohort Study, a major new investigation of the effects of enduring and emerging stressors on population health and health equity.  Dr. Cantor received his doctorate in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health in 1988.