David Cutler

David Cutler Speaker Biography

Health Care Advisor to President Obama, Former Member of the Council of Economic Advisors and Harvard Professor of Applied Economics

One of the nation’s most influential health economists, 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 was named Harvard College Professor in 2014 until 2019. Professor Cutler holds secondary appointments at the Kennedy School of Government and the School of Public Health. Professor Cutler was associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for Social Sciences from 2003-2008.

Health Economics

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 has advised the Presidential campaigns of Bill Bradley, John Kerry, and Barack Obama as well as being Senior Health Care Advisor for the Obama Presidential Campaign. 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 National Academy of Medicine. He advises many companies and groups on health care.

Health Advisor

Professor Cutler was a key advisor in the formulation of the recent cost control legislation in Massachusetts, and is one of the members of the Health Policy Commission created to help reduce medical spending in that state.

Books

Professor Cutler is author of three books, several chapters in edited books, and many published papers on the topics of health care and other public policy topics. 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 recently completed a book, Survival of the City: The Future of Urban Life in an Age of Isolation (with Edward Glaeser), examining how cities need to and can adapt to pandemics and other threats.

Education

Professor Cutler received an AB from Harvard University (1987) and a PhD in Economics from MIT (1991).

David Cutler Speaking Topics

What Health Care Reform Means for Businesses

Many businesses are wary of health care reform. Yet health care reform presents opportunities as well as challenges. Dr. David Cutler analyzes the opportunities and challenges that health reform will bring to business. He highlights areas of underexploited value in health care, including chronic care management, administrative simplification, and care coordination. Dr. Cutler shows the public and private sector opportunities associated with each of these areas and how smart businesses can exploit them. He also highlights how the political process approaches reform, and the implications of current public policies for business.

The Value Proposition in Health Care

Building on his phenomenal academic career and extensive experience in health care policy, Dr. David Cutler presents a feasible, sustainable plan for health care reform in the United States. Dr. Cutler focuses on value creation: taking a health care system that is haphazard in quality and too costly and focusing it on the core mission of value enhancement. Dr. Cutler shows how this can be achieved through several key changes: improving the information flow in health care; aligning compensation systems so they reward better care, not just more care; and stressing organizational structures that lead to improved performance. An architect of the Obama plan for health care, Dr. Cutler shows how public and private policies can further the value proposition in health care.