National Healthcare Reform: Policy Options and Imperatives James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Houston, TX Friday, February 23, 2007
	ABOUT THE CONFERENCE CONFERENCE AGENDA CONFERENCE SPEAKERS MEDIA ADVISORY

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Kenneth Thorpe | Dana Goldman | Alan Garber | Roger Feldman
David Cutler |

Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. He was the Vanselow Professor of Health Policy and Director, Institute for Health Services Research, Tulane University; Professor of Health Policy and Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Associate Professor and Director of the Program on Health Care Financing and Insurance, Harvard University School of Public Health; and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Public Health, Columbia University. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  In this capacity, he coordinated all financial estimates and program impacts of President Clinton’s healthcare reform proposals for the White House and directed the administration’s estimation efforts in dealing with Congressional healthcare reform proposals.  Dr. Thorpe was awarded the Association for Health Services Research’s Young Investigator Award, University of North Carolina’s Hettleman Award for academic and scholarly research, and Modern Healthcare’s “Up and Comers” award.  He has authored and co-authored over 80 articles, chapters and books and is a frequent national presenter on issues of healthcare financing, insurance and reform (including testimonies before Congressional committees). He has worked with groups (including the American College of Physicians, American Hospital Association, National Coalition on Health Care, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Service Employees International Union, United Hospital Fund) and policymakers (including Senators Wellstone, Corzine, Bingaman, Snowe, Clinton, Kennedy) to develop and evaluate approaches to provide health insurance to the uninsured.  
Professor Thorpe received his PhD from Rand Graduate School, MA from Duke University and BA from University of Michigan. 

Dana Goldman holds the RAND Chair in health economics; directs RAND's program in economics, finance, and organization; and is the Founding Director of the Bing Center for Health Economics at RAND.  He is also an Adjunct Professor of Health Services and Radiology at UCLA.  His research interests combine applied microeconomics and medical issues, with a special interest in the role that medical technology and health insurance play in determining health-related outcomes.  His work has been published in leading medical, economic, statistics, and health policy journals with funding from both the public and private sectors, including the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, National Cancer Institute, National Science Foundation, Amgen, Merck, Genentech, California Healthcare Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Labor, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Most recently, he is the director of the RAND Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation designed to provide better estimates of the impact of health policy changes.  Dr. Goldman serves on several editorial boards including Health Affairs and the American Journal of Managed Care.  He is a founding editor of the Forum for Health Economics and Policy.  He was the recipient of the National Institute for Health Care Management Research Foundation award for excellence in health policy, and the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award that recognizes the outstanding contributions of a young scholar to the field of health services research.  He is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Dr. Goldman received his B.A from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

Alan M. Garber, MD, PhD, is the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor and a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, where he is also Professor of Economics, Professor of Health Research and Policy, and Professor of Economics in the Graduate School of Business (courtesy).  He is the founder and director of both the university’s Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at the School of Medicine.  He is the Director of the Health Care Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and serves as a Staff Physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, where he is also the Associate Director of the VA Center for Health Care Evaluation. 

After graduating from Harvard College summa cum laude, he received his PhD in economics from Harvard and an MD with research honors from Stanford, and completed his residency in Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Young Investigator Award of the Association for Health Services Research (now Academy Health) and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Faculty Scholarship in General Internal Medicine.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Society for clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and of the National Advisory Council on Aging (NIH), and serves as Chair of the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee (CMS).

Roger Feldman is the Blue Cross Professor of Health Insurance and Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota.  Dr. Feldman was a Marshall Scholar at the London School of Economics and holds a PhD in economics from the University of Rochester.  His research examines the organization, financing, and delivery of healthcare with a focus on health insurance.  He also studies competition among healthcare providers and insurers.  Currently, he is evaluating the effect of “consumer-directed” health plans on medical care utilization and personal saving decisions.  Dr. Feldman’s experience in healthcare policy includes serving on the Senior Staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he was the lead author of a chapter in the 1985 Economic Report of the President.  From 1988 to 1992, he directed one of four national research centers sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  He advised CMS on the design of a demonstration of competitive pricing for Medicare M+C plans and, recently, provided advice to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (HHS) on the potential for health savings accounts to reduce the un-insurance rate in the U.S.  Dr. Feldman is a regular contributor to journals in economics and health services research.  His research has received four “best paper” awards from the Association for Health Services Research and the National Institute of Health Care Management.  He has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice and several state regulatory agencies regarding health plan mergers and ownership changes.

David Cutler has developed an impressive record of achievement in both academia and the public sector. He served as Assistant Professor of Economics from 1991 to 1995, was named John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Sciences in 1995, and received tenure in 1997. He is currently the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics in the department of economics and Kennedy School of Government, and associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for Social Sciences.
Honored for his scholarly work and singled out for outstanding mentorship of graduate students, Professor Cutler's work in health economics and public economics has earned him significant academic and public acclaim. Professor Cutler served on the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration and advised the Presidential campaigns of Bill Bradley and John Kerry. Among other affiliations, Professor Cutler has held positions with the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. Currently, Professor Cutler is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Institute of Medicine.
Professor Cutler is the author of Your Money Or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America's Health Care System, published by Oxford University Press. This book, and Professor Cutler's ideas, were the subject of a feature article in the New York Times Magazine, The Quality Cure, by Roger Lowenstein. Cutler was recently named one of the 30 people who could have a powerful impact on healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine.