Known as the architect of the Affordable Care Act, Gruber spoke to the Ramapo community about the future of healthcare in the United States as part of RCNJ’s Power of Conversation series and sponsored by the Eastern Economics Association

October 16, 2024

by Liz Mendicino ’26

What do students studying economics, nursing, medical sciences, or political science all have in common? U. S. Healthcare.

For that reason, Ramapo College was the perfect forum for Dr. Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and architect of the Affordable Care Act, to speak to the community on October 8 about Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Healthcare from the Sharp Theater in the Berrie Center.  

According to Gruber, healthcare reform in the U.S. is never “over.” The United States continues to struggle as a nation with issues of access and costs. Gruber reviewed how the Affordable Care Act changed the landscape of healthcare in the U.S. and the challenges it faces in the new administration.  He also discussed the key drivers of rapidly rising health care costs in the U.S. and what needs to be done to stop the country from being bankrupted by its health spending obligations, exploring different avenues for how his advantageous goals can be met feasibly. 

“Part of the problem in our country, in the world today, is narrowing and narrowing perspectives, where everyone’s in their echo chamber and only caring about the one thing they care about,” said Gruber. “Every issue has two sides. There is no black and white. There shouldn’t be black and white thinking. Everyone needs to engage and think about the broad spectrum issues, and that’s exactly what a liberal arts education is designed to do.”

Dr. Gruber explained in simple yet effective terms how the Affordable Care Act was established and what it sets out to do. He stressed the importance of public access to information in academia and medicine so that the everyday American can understand what they are paying for and how it works. Gruber’s visit helps further Ramapo’s efforts to generate ethical change agents and allows for greater growth in critical thinking in the workplace. “I think that a lot of what has gone wrong with government policy making the country is the perception that it’s not ethical, that people feel not heard,” said Gruber. “They feel like people are out for themselves. Some of them are, some of them aren’t. And so I think it’s so critical to always be ethical and put ethics first as we think about proper decision making, sometimes people disagree. Wouldn’t insist on different systems ethics or disagree, but it’s important that we put that first and foremost.”

The event was chaired by the Eastern Economic Association, which is headquartered at Ramapo College and led by Executive Director Dr. Alexandre Olbrecht, professor of economics at Ramapo College. “By bringing in speakers of the caliber of Dr. Gruber, students at Ramapo are given an opportunity to learn from some of the world’s best experts,” said Olbrecht. “In this case, the healthcare discussion on October 8 helps inform our students as they head to the ballot box and cast their votes in the upcoming election. Further, this continues our proud tradition at Ramapo College to help create and mold our graduates into lifelong learners, a skill set that will provide value over the course of their lives.” Gruber is regarded as one of the most creative and forward-thinking minds in his field. His talk also furthered the College’s liberal arts mission to teach students how to think rather than what to think, by bringing in “One of the Top 25 Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time,” per Slate Magazine. 

With the election rapidly approaching, issues such as healthcare are becoming increasingly topical and contentious. Rather than shying away from these issues, the Ramapo community is tackling them head on and facilitating meaningful, relevant conversations that allow for everyone in the community to grow and benefit. Ramapo College is New Jersey’s public liberal arts college and delivers accessibility and affordability to a liberal arts education. Speakers such as Dr. Gruber helps the school further its mission, and provide students with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to not only hear key figures speak, but engage with them and ask questions.

Learn more about the Power of Conversation series, and about Ramapo College at ramapo.edu.

Bio

Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He is also the former Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the former President of the American Society of Health Economists. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Econometric Society. He has published more than 180 research articles, has edited six research volumes, and is the author of Public Finance and Public Policy, a leading undergraduate text in its 7th edition, Health Care Reform, a graphic novel, and Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream (with Simon Johnson). In 2006 he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under.