Health Care

Overview
Featured Research
Featured Commentary
Publications
Research Team
Fellows
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Featured Research

Articles

When Expansion Is Not Enough—State Innovation To Build Choice And Consumer Control In Medicaid

May 11, 2023 By Lanhee J. Chen

via JAMA Network

Working Papers

The Responsiveness Of Medicaid Spending To The Federal Subsidy

November 23, 2021 By M. Kate Bundorf, Daniel P. Kessler

via National Bureau of Economic Research

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Articles

The Choices for All Project: Healthcare Reforms for the Future

The Choices for All Project examines why our healthcare system is so broken and offers reforms that would improve incentives for consumers and expand the supply of healthcare.

July 27, 2023 By Lanhee J. Chen , Tom Church , Daniel Heil

via Hoover Daily Report

Books

Restoring Quality Health Care, 2nd Edition

June 16, 2020 By Scott W. Atlas

via Hoover Institution Press

Working Papers

Medicare At 60: A Preliminary Overview

April 27, 2021 By Lanhee J. Chen, Tom Church, Daniel Heil

via Hoover Daily Report

Articles

The Relationship Between Provider Age and Opioid Prescribing Behavior

May 6, 2022 By Daniel P. Kessler

via The American Journal of Managed Care

Feature Commentary

Articles

Looking Ahead On Market-Based Health Reform

October 13, 2023 By Lanhee J. Chen, Tom Church, Daniel Heil

via Health Affairs

Articles

Tackling The World’s Biggest Killer Is Surprisingly Cheap

August 22, 2024 By Bjorn Lomborg

via Forbes

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Videos

Putting Patients First: The Case For Individual Health Accounts

Third party payers, such as employers and the government, negotiate healthcare costs behind the scenes, cutting out individual patients from the process and contributing to rising healthcare…

January 11, 2024 By Lanhee J. Chen

via PolicyEd

Videos

Jay Bhattacharya: 2024 Bradley Prize Acceptance Speech

May 24, 2024 interview with Jay Bhattacharya

via The Bradley Foundation

Videos

Health Policy After Covid

June 11, 2024 By Scott W. Atlas

via PolicyEd

Articles

Covid Lessons Learned, Four Years Later

March 18, 2024 By Scott W. Atlas, Steve H. Hanke

via The Wall Street Journal

Key Research Teams

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Healthcare Policy Working Group

Developing rigorous, research-based policy solutions and budgetary analyses to lower costs, improve quality, and increase access to healthcare.

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The Choices for All Project

Fellows in this Policy Area

Daniel P. Kessler

Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow

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Daniel P. Kessler

Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow

Daniel Kessler is the Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on economics, public policy, and the health care industry. He is also a professor at the Stanford Law School. Among his publications are, with Mark McClellan, “The Effect of Hospital Ownership on Medical Productivity,” in the RAND Journal of Economics (2002), and “Designing Hospital Antitrust Policy to Promote Social Welfare,” which appeared in Frontiers in Health Policy Research. His books include a forthcoming second edition of Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System (Hoover Institution Press, 2011), coauthored with Leonard and Shirley Ely Senior Fellow John Cogan and R. Glenn Hubbard, and Regulation versus Litigation: Perspectives from Economics and Law (University of Chicago Press, 2010). He is the holder of a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a JD from Stanford Law School.

John F. Cogan

Leonard and Shirley Ely Senior Fellow

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John F. Cogan

Leonard and Shirley Ely Senior Fellow

John F. Cogan is the Leonard and Shirley Ely Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His research is focused on US budget and fiscal policy and federal entitlement programs. He has published widely in professional journals in both economics and political science. His latest book, The High Cost of Good Intentions (2017) is the recipient of the 2018 Hayek Prize. The book traces the history of US federal entitlement programs from the Revolutionary War to modern times. His previous books include Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System (2005), coauthored with Glenn Hubbard and Daniel P. Kessler, and The Budget Puzzle (1994), with Timothy J. Muris and Allen Schick. At Stanford, he taught classes in the Economics Department, the Graduate School of Business, and the Public Policy Program, where he was a faculty member from 1994 to 2019. He also served on faculty advisory boards for the Stanford in Washington Program and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a recipient of the Stanford-in-Government's Distinguished Service Award and the Stanford Review’s Best Undergraduate Teaching Award. Cogan has devoted a considerable part of his career to public service. He served under President Ronald Reagan as assistant secretary for policy in the US Department of Labor from 1981 to 1983, and in the US Office of Management and Budget, as associate director from 1983 to 1985 and as deputy director from 1988 to 1989. He was appointed to numerous congressional, presidential, and California state advisory commissions. He was a member of President George W. Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, the US Bipartisan Commission on Health Care (the Pepper Commission), the Social Security Notch Commission, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Panel on Poverty and Family Assistance. He was also a member of the California State Commission on the 21st-Century Economy and the California Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission. Cogan served on the board of directors of Monaco Coach Corporation from 2006 to 2009; the board of directors of Gilead Sciences from 2006 to 2020 (lead independent director, 2013–2020); and on the board of trustees of the Charles Schwab Family of Funds from 2009 to 2021 (chairman, Governance Committee 2014–2020). Cogan received his AB in 1969 and his PhD in 1976 from the University of California–Los Angeles, both in economics. He received his MA in economics from California State University–Long Beach in 1970. He was an associate economist at the RAND Corporation from 1975 to 1980. In 1979, Cogan was appointed a national fellow at the Hoover Institution; in 1980 he was appointed a senior research fellow; and in 1984 he became a senior fellow.

John H. Cochrane

Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow

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John H. Cochrane

Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow

John H. Cochrane is the Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an adjunct scholar of the CATO Institute. Before joining Hoover, Cochrane was a Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and earlier at its Economics Department. Cochrane earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at MIT and his PhD in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He was a junior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers (1982–83). Cochrane’s recent publications include the book Asset Pricing and articles on dynamics in stock and bond markets, the volatility of exchange rates, the term structure of interest rates, the returns to venture capital, liquidity premiums in stock prices, the relation between stock prices and business cycles, and option pricing when investors can’t perfectly hedge. His monetary economics publications include articles on the relationship between deficits and inflation, the effects of monetary policy, and the fiscal theory of the price level. He has also written articles on macroeconomics, health insurance, time-series econometrics, financial regulation, and other topics. He was a coauthor of The Squam Lake Report. His Asset Pricing PhD class is available online via Coursera. Cochrane frequently contributes editorial opinion essays to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg.com, and other publications. He maintains the Grumpy Economist blog.

Scott W. Atlas

Robert Wesson Senior Fellow

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Scott W. Atlas

Robert Wesson Senior Fellow

Scott W. Atlas, MD is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. Dr. Atlas investigates the role of government and the private sector in health care quality and access, global trends in health care innovation, and the key economic and civil liberty issues related to health policy. He is a frequent policy advisor to policymakers and government officials in the United States and in other countries. He has served as senior advisor for health policy to several candidates for President, as well as having counselled members of the US Congress on health care, testified before Congress, and briefed directors of key federal agencies. From July to December, 2020, he served as a Special Advisor to the President and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Before his appointment at Hoover Institution, he was Professor and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center for 14 years. His publications and interviews have appeared worldwide. Dr. Atlas is the author of numerous books, including A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America (Post Hill Press), In Excellent Health: Setting the Record Straight on America’s Health Care System (Hoover Press), and Restoring Quality Health Care: A Six‐Point Plan for Comprehensive Reform at Lower Cost (Hoover Press). He is also the editor of "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine" – the leading textbook in the field, translated into several languages, and now in its 5th edition. Dr. Atlas has received many awards and accolades from leading institutions and societies all over the world in recognition of his leadership in policy and medicine. He was awarded the 2022 Encounter Prize for Advancing American Ideals, explained as follows: “Standing up to injustice and facing down the madding crowd of conformity requires enormous patience, equilibrium, insight, and courage—the most important virtue, Aristotle observed, because without it none of the other virtues can flourish. The Encounter Prize for Advancing American Ideals pays tribute to individuals who effectively embody this rare combination of virtues in their lives and work.” He also received the 2021 Freedom Leadership Award, Hillsdale College’s highest honor, “in recognition of his dedication to individual freedom and the free society,” the 2021 Conservative Partnership Institute Freedom Fighter of the Year Award, CPI’s highest honor, "bestowed upon an individual for their courage and dedication to truth and liberty" and the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award, the highest career achievement honor for a distinguished alumnus from the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign. In the private sector, Atlas is a frequent advisor to start-up entrepreneurs and companies in life sciences and medical technology. He received his MD degree from the University of Chicago School of Medicine.

Thomas E. MaCurdy

Senior Fellow

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Thomas E. MaCurdy

Senior Fellow

Thomas MaCurdy holds a joint appointment as a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a Professor of Economics at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1978. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. MaCurdy’s expertise covers domestic policy related to government income-support and entitlement programs, with his research disclosing consequential empirical findings relevant to the design and impacts of public assistance policies. MaCurdy has published numerous articles and reports in professional journals and general-interest public policy venues, with studies analyzing policies in the areas of welfare, food stamps, earned income tax credit, minimum wages, unemployment compensation, child support, foster care, low-skilled training, federal and state taxes, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other government aid for health care. These studies address a broad range issues, including determinants of participation rates, characteristics of beneficiaries, sources and distributions of program costs, and influences on work disincentives and incomes. In the healthcare area, MaCurdy has conducted a wide variety of projects supporting the activities and operations of the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO). He works extensively on the design of payment policies. He directs major projects with CMS on the setting of Medicare payment rates in the fee-for-service (FFS), Medicare Advantage (managed care) and Part D (drugs) programs. He also currently supervises several projects supporting CMS regulatory policy responsible for the establishment and maintenance of Healthcare Exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. He has further conducted a series of studies that explore options for implementing Value Base Purchasing (VBP) in Medicare (which introduces pay-for-performance features in reimbursements) and that examine the cost drivers underlying the growth in healthcare spending. MaCurdy has performed similar work in Medicaid for a variety of government agencies, studying both the impact of payment policy and the circumstances explaining cost growth. Among his public service activities, MaCurdy has served as a member of standing committees advising the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census, Congressional Budget Office, Institute for Research on Poverty, West Coast Poverty Center, California Health Benefits Review Program and many other state and local governmental agencies in California. He has further served in an editorial capacity for several professional journals (Econometrica, Labor Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Review of Economics and Statistics and California Policy Review). MaCurdy received his BA in 1973 from the University of Washington and his PhD in 1978 from the University of Chicago, both in economics.

Jay Bhattacharya

Senior Fellow (courtesy)

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Jay Bhattacharya

Senior Fellow (courtesy)

Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., is a senior fellow (courtesy) at the Hoover Institution. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a professor at Stanford University Medical School.

Lanhee J. Chen

David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies

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Lanhee J. Chen

David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies

Lanhee J. Chen, Ph.D. is the David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution and Director of Domestic Policy Studies and Lecturer in the Public Policy Program at Stanford University. A veteran of several high-profile political campaigns and himself a candidate for statewide office in California, Chen has worked in politics, government, business, and academia. Chen was a candidate for California State Controller in 2022. He was the strongest-performing statewide Republican, earned more votes than any other Republican candidate in the country in the general election, and won endorsements from every major newspaper in the state. Chen has advised numerous major campaigns, including four presidential efforts. In 2012, he was policy director of the Romney-Ryan campaign, and served as Governor Mitt Romney’s chief policy adviser, a senior strategist on the campaign, and the person responsible for developing the campaign’s domestic and foreign policy. During the 2014 and 2018 campaign cycles, Chen served as a Senior Adviser on Policy to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). In addition to his academic appointments, Chen is a Partner at the Brunswick Group, a global business advisory firm, and a member of the Board of Directors at El Camino Health in Northern California. He also advises and invests in early-stage companies and was an operating partner and strategic advisor at NewRoad Capital Partners, a private equity fund. From 2014 to 2018, Chen served as a presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed member of the Social Security Advisory Board—an independent, bipartisan panel that advises the president, Congress, and the Commissioner of Social Security on matters related to the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income programs. He also served in the George W. Bush Administration as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Chen’s writings have appeared in a variety of outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and he is a regular contributor at CNN Opinion. He has also provided political analysis and commentary on every major television network. Chen was honored in 2015 as one of the POLITICO 50, a list of the “thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American politics.” He earned a similar honor in 2012 when he was named one of POLITICO’s “50 Politicos to Watch.” In 2017, Chen was the William E. Simon Visiting Professor in the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. At Stanford, he is also an affiliated faculty member of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and was Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School. An eight-time winner of Harvard University’s Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Chen’s scholarship has appeared or been cited in several of the nation’s top political science journals. Previously, Chen practiced law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and was the Winnie Neubauer Visiting Fellow in Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Chen serves in a variety of leadership and advisory roles in nonprofit organizations. He is a Director of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP); Co-Chair of the Policy Advisory Board for Free the Facts, a policy education organization; a member of the Board of Directors of the Winston Health Policy Fellowship; a member of the external advisory committee for the AAMC Research and Action Institute; and a member of the Council of Scholars for the Better Medicare Alliance. He is also a member of the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese Americans. Chen earned his Ph.D. and A.M. in political science from Harvard University, his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, and his A.B. magna cum laude in government from Harvard College. He is a member of the State Bar of California. A native of Rowland Heights, California, he currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and children.