Statecraft How to Bring Down Healthcare Costs
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Oct 2, 2025 Anup Malani, a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago and the first Chief Economist at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, dives into the complexities of American healthcare. He discusses why the U.S. spends so much yet struggles with life expectancy, exploring issues like Medicare fraud and the incentives driving up costs. Anup also highlights ways to curb expenses using site-neutral payments, the impact of demographics on spending, and innovative approaches to drug pricing and health data interoperability.
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Make The Job, Don't Expect A Job Description
- A CMS chief economist role has no fixed definition and must be shaped to add value without disrupting existing priorities.
- Building trust by delivering timely, roughly correct analysis is key to influencing high-stakes decisions.
Use Fermi Problems To Inform Fast Decisions
- Do rapid, theory-guided Fermi calculations when government decisions need fast answers under uncertainty.
- Prioritize getting useful approximations over academic publication standards to inform policy quickly.
Implementation Constraints Shape Policy Feasibility
- Academic health economists often miss implementation constraints like legal clearance, political coalitions, and operational capacity.
- Research that addresses these constraints would increase real-world policy impact.