Speaker biographies

Philip Ellis joined the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in 2002 and is currently a senior analyst. His most recent product was a December 2007 report on the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments. His other work at the CBO has spanned a variety of health care topics, including the Medicare drug benefit, disease management, and the Medicaid program. In 2006, Mr. Ellis completed a report on consumer-directed health plans and their potential effects on health spending and outcomes. Prior to joining the CBO, he worked on Medicare reform and other health care issues at the Treasury Department and in the office of the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services.

James Lubitz was formerly a distinguished consultant and acting chief of the Aging and Chronic Disease Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His research interests include trends in the health of the aged and implications for financing Medicare. Mr. Lubitz’s recent publications on these subjects have been published in the Journal of the Royal Stastitical Society, Demography, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Thomas P. Miller is a resident fellow at AEI, where he researches health policy, with particular emphasis on information transparency, health insurance regulation, and consumer-driven health care. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Before joining AEI, Mr. Miller served for three years as senior health economist for the Joint Economic Committee, where he organized a series of hearings focusing on promising reforms in private health care markets and drafted several social security reform bills. He also has been director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and director of economic policy studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Mr. Miller’s writing has appeared in such publications as Health Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Reader’s Digest, National Review, the Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems, Regulation, and Cato Journal. He has testified before various Congressional committees on issues such as Medicare prescription drug benefits, medical savings accounts, and tax credits for health insurance.

Louise Sheiner is a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where she specializes in issues related to health insurance, health care, Social Security, and Medicare. Her research has focused on the sustainability of health spending growth, the demographics of health spending, the macroeconomic impacts of population aging and the labor market effects of health insurance costs and health reforms. Her previous public policy experience includes serving as senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and staff economist at the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Peter Zweifel is a professor of economics at the University of Zurich, where his research interests include the economics of insurance and its deregulation, energy economics, decision theory, and health economics. He first began to study health economics while serving as an honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin in 1974–75. His recent publications in this area have been published in Health Economics, Policy, and Law; the Journal of Regulatory Economics; Forum for Health Economics and Policy; and Health Economics.

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