How Jonathan Gruber became ‘Mr. Mandate’
Earlier this year, The New York Times called Jonathan Gruber “Mr. Mandate.” And with good reason: His in-depth modeling of health-insurance markets helped create the legislation for mandatory private insurance that is near the center of the U.S. presidential election. Indeed, Gruber is in the unique position of having made a vital policy contribution to each major-party candidate. Gruber’s work helped convince Mitt Romney, then governor of Massachusetts, to sign a 2006 bill mandating insurance, with subsidies if needed, for all state residents. And when President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the White House enlisted Gruber as a key numbers-cruncher on health care; his analysis ultimately established the fiscal viability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).Gruber, a professor of economics at MIT, cares intensely about health care as a social issue. But once upon a time — the 1980s, to be precise — Mr. Mandate had no interest in...