Updated July 2020
James C. Capretta American Enterprise Institute 1789 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 [email protected] (202) 862-5846 (tel.)
EDUCATION: M.A., Public Policy Studies, Duke University 1987 B.A., Government, University of Notre Dame 1985
EMPLOYMENT:
Resident Fellow and Milton Friedman Chair, American Enterprise Institute 2016 to Present Visiting Fellow 2012 to 2016
CONSULTING:
Senior Adviser, Bipartisan Policy Center 2017 to Present
MEDIA:
Contributor, RealClearPolicy 2017 to Present Columnist, State of Reform 2019 to Present
BOARDS:
National Institute for Health Care Management, Advisory Board 2011 to Present
Health Affairs, Editorial Board 2012 to Present
Aging with Dignity, Board of Directors 2017 to Present
Free the Facts, Policy Advisory Board 2019 to Present
PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT SERVICE:
Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President Associate Director (Health, Income Security, Labor, Education) 2001 to 2004
U.S. Senate Budget Committee, Senior Policy Analyst 1990 to 1995 1995 to 2001
U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means 1995 Subcommittee on Health, Professional Staff Member
Office of Management and Budget, Budget Examiner 1987 to 1990
PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS:
Ethics and Public Policy Center
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Senior Fellow 2013 to 2016 Fellow 2006 to 2013
Mercatus Center, George Mason University, Affiliated Scholar 2014 to 2016
The Brookings Institution, Visiting Fellow 2005 to 2006
OTHER PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT:
Civic Enterprises, LLC (consulting) 2006 to 2016
Wexler and Walker Public Policy Associates 2004 to 2006
Catholic Health Association 1995
SELECTED BOOK CHAPTERS AND REPORTS:
“The Road Not Taken,” with Joseph Antos, in The Trillion Dollar Revolution, Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Abby R. Gluck eds., Public Affairs Books, March 2020 (pdf) (book)
“Medicaid,” in A Safety Net That Works, Robert Doar ed., American Enterprise Institute, February 2017 (link) (full book)
“Increasing the Effectiveness and Sustainability of the Nation’s Entitlement Programs,” with Andrew Biggs, Robert Doar, Ron Haskins, and Yuval Levin, American Enterprise Institute, June 2016 (pdf)
“Improving Health and Health Care: An Agenda for Reform,” with Joseph Antos, Lanhee J. Chen, Scott Gottlieb, Yuval Levin, Thomas P. Miller, Ramesh Ponnuru, Avik Roy, Gail Wilensky, and David Wilson, American Enterprise Institute, December 2015 (pdf)
“Reforming Medicaid,” in The Economics of Medicaid, Jason Fichtner (ed.), Mercatus Center at George Mason University, April 2014 (pdf) (full book)
CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY AND LETTERS:
“Cost-Reducing Health Policies: A Response to Chairman Alexander and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,” with Henry Aaron, Joseph Antos, Loren Adler, Matthew Fiedler, Paul Ginsburg, Benedic Ippolito, and Alice Rivlin, March 1, 2019 (pdf)
“The Budget Resolution -- Content, Timeliness, and Enforcement,” Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform, May 24, 2018 (written testimony) (hearing details) (full hearing video)
“Proposals to Reform the President’s Budget and Congressional Budget Process,” Senate Budget Committee, April 27, 2016 (written testimony) (hearing details) (full hearing video)
“The Original Understanding of the Role of Congress and How Far We Have Drifted From It,” House Judiciary Committee Executive Overreach Task Force, March 1, 2016 (written
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testimony) (hearing details) (full hearing video)
“The Obama Administration’s Delay of the Employer Mandate,” House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, July 10, 2013 (written testimony) (hearing details) (full hearing video)
“Saving Seniors and Our Most Vulnerable Citizens from an Entitlement Crisis,” House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, March 18, 2013 (written testimony) (video)
“The Status of the Medicare Advantage Program,” House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, September 21, 2012
“Identifying Opportunities for Health Delivery System Reform: Lessons from the Front Line,” Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, May 16, 2012 (video)
“Putting Health Care Spending on a Sustainable Path,” Senate Budget Committee, February 29, 2012 (video)
“The Medicare Trigger,” Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, and National Archives, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 12, 2011 (video)
“Fulfilling the Mission of Health and Retirement Security,” House Budget Committee, March 17, 2011 (video)
“The Fiscal Consequences of the New Health Care Law,” House Budget Committee, January 26, 2011 (video)
“Perspectives on Long-Term Deficits,” House Budget Committee, January 21, 2010 (video)
SELECTED PAPERS:
“COVID-19 and the Medicare Trust Funds,” with Joseph Antos, Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, July 2020 (pdf)
“Fiscal Policy and the Major Entitlements: An Introduction,” Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, June 2020 (pdf)
“Policies Affecting the Number of Physicians in the U.S. and a Framework for Reform,” Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, March 2020 (pdf), and “Promoting a More Adaptable Physician Pipeline,” Regulatory Transparency Project, March 2020 (pdf)
“Bipartisan Rx for America’s Health Care,” with Tom Daschle, Bill Frist, Andy Slavitt, Gail Wilensky, Sheila Burke, Chris Jennings, Cindy Mann, and Avik Roy, Bipartisan Policy Center, February 2020 (pdf)
“Toward Meaningful Price Transparency in Health Care,” Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, June 2019 (pdf)
“A Balanced Plan for Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth,” with Joseph Antos, Andrew Biggs, Alex Brill, and Alan Viard, Peterson Foundation Solutions Initiative, June 2019 (pdf)
“Reforming Medicare Payments for Part B Drugs,” with Joseph Antos, Economic Perspectives,
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American Enterprise Institute, June 2019 (pdf)
“Providing High-Quality, Cost-Effective Health Coverage to Retired Federal Employees Age 65 and Older,” with Joseph Antos and Walton J. Francis, Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, January 2019 (pdf)
“Prescription Drug Pricing: An Overview of the Legal, Regulatory, and Market Environment,” with Joseph Antos, Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, July 2018 (pdf)
“Automatic Adjustments Within Entitlement Programs: A Look at the Swedish Pension Reform Model,” Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, March 2018 (pdf)
“Rethinking Medicare,” National Affairs, March 2018 (link) (pdf)
“The Congressional Budget Process: A Brief Primer,” Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, February 2018 (pdf)
“Bringing Market Discipline to Health Care Is Complex, Difficult, and Necessary,” with Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Economic Perspectives, American Enterprise Institute, September 2017 (pdf)
“An Examination of Medicare’s Current Design and an Alternative,” Mercatus Center, George Mason University, June 2017 (pdf)
“The On-Demand Economy and Worker Benefits and Protections,” Future of Work Initiative, Aspen Institute, September 2016 (pdf)
“Reforming the Budget Process,” National Affairs, Fall 2014 (link)
“Global Aging and the Sustainability of Public Pension Systems: An Assessment of Reform Efforts in Twelve Developed Countries,” Global Aging Initiative, Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 2007 (link)
“Building Automatic Solvency Into U.S. Social Security: Insights from Sweden and Germany,” The Brookings Institution, Policy Brief #151, March 2006 (pdf)
SELECTED SHORT ARTICLES AND OPINION:
The Wall Street Journal:
“Drug Rebates Aren’t Kickbacks: A rule designed to save patients money would end up having the opposite effect,” with Joseph Antos, The Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2018 (link)
“An ObamaCare Tax Worth Keeping: The levy on ‘Cadillac’ plans will counter perverse tax incentives,” The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2018 (link)
“ObamaCare’s Failed Cost Controls: Medical spending keeps rising, outpacing both general inflation and population growth,” with Joseph R. Antos, The Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2017 (link)
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“How the GOP Could Nudge the Uninsured Toward Coverage: Automatically enroll many Americans in no-premium, high-deductible policies unless they opt out,” with Lanhee J. Chen, The Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2017 (link)
“The Four Legs of a New Health-Care System: The Great Recession enabled ObamaCare. Now the law’s failure makes reform possible,” with Scott Gottlieb, The Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2016 (link)
“Macra: The Quiet Health-Care Takeover; A 962-page rule puts the federal government between doctors and patients,” with Lanhee J. Chen, The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2016 (link)
“The Other Stealthy ObamaCare Menace: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation exists to impose price controls and limit payments to providers,” with Lanhee J. Chen, The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2014 (link)
“Exposing the Medicare Double Count,” with Charles Blahous, The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2012 (link)
“Health Care Repeal Won’t Add to the Deficit,” with Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Joseph Antos, The Wall Street Journal (Online Extra), January 18, 2011 (link)
The New York Times:
“The Public Option Is Not an Easy Fix for Health Care,” with Joseph Antos, The New York Times, February 25, 2020 (link)
“The Health Reforms the G.O.P. Should Embrace (but Probably Won’t),” with Joseph Antos, The New York Times, April 4, 2019 (link)
“Yes, There’s Hope for Health Care Reform: A Bipartisan Consensus Is Focused on Fixing the Systems’ Chronic Waste and Inefficiency,” with Lanhee J. Chen, The New York Times, August 31, 2018 (link)
“Republicans Need a Nudge to Lower Health Care Costs,” with Lanhee J. Chen, The New York Times, February 12, 2018 (link)
Journal of the American Medical Association:
“Job-Based Insurance in a COVID-19 World,” with Joseph Antos, Ph.D., JAMA Health Forum, June 5, 2020 (link)
“Challenges in Measuring the Affordability of US Healthcare,” with Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Journal of the American Medical Association, November 2, 2017 (link)
“Building a Broader Consensus for Health Reform,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, June 13, 2017 (link)
“Replacing the Affordable Care Act and Other Suggested Reforms,” with Joseph Antos, Ph.D. and Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., Journal of the American Medical Association Forum, December 21, 2015 (link) 5
Other Publications:
Health Affairs Blog (33) (link); RealClearPolicy (170+) (link); The Weekly Standard (42); Politico (4); The Bulwark (7) (link); State of Reform (10) (link); National Review Online; Kaiser Health News; USA Today; and others.
SELECTED RECENT PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS:
“Health Insurance Auto-Enrollment,” Brookings-AEI Webinar, May 18, 2020 (video)
“Bipartisan Rx for America’s Health Care,” Bipartisan Policy Center, February 5, 2020 (video)
“Green New Deal: Visionary or Misguided?”, Panel on Medicare for All, Richman Center for Business Law, and Public Policy, Columbia University, New York, NY, October 21, 2019 (information) (video)
“Who Benefits? The Winners and Losers of Medicare for All, Obamacare, and Other Health Care Proposals,” American Enterprise Institute, October 9, 2019 (video)
“A New Vision for Health Reform,” American Enterprise Institute, September 24, 2019 (video)
“The New Medicare Physician Payment Regulation: What Does It Mean for Physicians and Patients?,” American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, November 27, 2018 (information) (video)
“Positive Disruption in Health Care: What Will It Take?”. American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, October 18, 2018 (information) (video)
“The Future of Health Care: Where Does the Bipartisan Path Lead?”, Bipartisan Policy Center, Washington, DC, July 25, 2018 (information) (video)
“Why Are Healthcare Prices So High, and What Can Be Done About Them?,” Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington, DC, May 9, 2018 (information) (video)
“Making Competition in the Healthcare Sector Work: What Would It Take?,” Keynote Lecture, Healthcare at a Crossroads Conference, Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, April 5, 2018 (information) (video)
“Improving Healthcare to Deliver Better Quality at Lower Cost,” 2017 Peterson Fiscal Summit, Washington, DC, May 23, 2017 (video)
“The Outlook for the ACA and What Might Replace It,” Penn Health Policy Retreat, University of Pennsylvania, December 13, 2016 (video)
“Modernizing America’s Health Care: A Conversation with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the Speaker’s Task Force on Health Care Reform,” American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, June 22, 2016 (event description) (video) 6
“Tackling Entitlement Reform: A Comprehensive Plan to Increase Effectiveness and Sustainability,” American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, June 9, 2016 (event description) (video)
“Improving Health and Health Care: An Agenda for Reform,” American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, December 9, 2015 (event details and video)
“The Future of Medicare and Medicaid,” a debate with Dr. Don Berwick, Pioneer Institute, April 5, 2012 (video)
SELECTED CONSULTING PUBLICATIONS:
“Current Federal Health Care Waiver Authorities Will Not Pave the Way for the New York Health Act,” with Lanhee Chen, January 2020
“Assessing the Economics of Obesity and Obesity Interventions,” with Michael J. O’Grady, Ph.D., March 2012 (link)
“The Use of Epidemiological Modeling for Projecting Diabetes Incidence and Spending Under Alternative Policies,” with Michael J. O’Grady, Ph.D., Elbert Huang, M.D., M.P.H., and Anirban Basu, Ph.D., August 2008
“Federal Health Care Cost Estimating: A Look at Current Practice and the Implications for Assessing Chronic Disease Prevention Protocols,” with Michael J. O’Grady, Ph.D. and Elbert Huang, M.D., M.P.H., June 2008
SELECTED MEDIA APPEARANCES:
National Public Radio, MSNBC, CNBC, “WSJ Live,” C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” “PBS Newshour,” “Fox News Sunday,” and EWTN
TEACHING AND SEMINARS:
“Health Care in America: Balancing Coverage, Quality, and Affordabilty,” American Enterprise Institute Summer Honors Program, Washington, DC, June 15-19, 2020.
“The Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy,” Hertog Political Studies Program and Hertog Economic Studies Program, Washington, DC (2015-2019).
“U.S. Health Care Policy,” American Enterprise Institute Summer Honors Program, Washington, DC, June 22-26, 2015.
“The Future of the Welfare State,” Tikvah Fund Seminar, New York, NY, November 4-7, 2013.
“Fiscal Policy and the American Economy,” Tikvah Fund Seminar, New York, NY, November 5-9, 2012.
“Managing Entitlements with an Aging Population,” Duke University, Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Spring Semester 2006.
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