Cutler To Work on Health Care Policy for Obama

Noted health care economist and former Dean of the Social Sciences David M. Cutler ’87 will become the latest Harvard professor to serve in the Obama administration, he said in an interview late Thursday.

Cutler joins three other members of the economics department in Washington—former University President Lawrence H. Summers, and professors Jeremy C. Stein and Jeffrey B. Liebman.

“I think that people who have the opportunity to help their country and the world need to, at times, do that,” Cutler said of his leave.

Cutler was one of the chief architects of President Barack Obama’s health care plan—a hot-button issue during the presidential campaign—and said he will continue to work on health care policy in D.C.

Cutler first came to Harvard in 1991 as an assistant professor, received tenure in 1997, and recently finished a 5-year stint overseeing the Faculty’s social science departments as divisional dean.

Outside academia, Cutler has served on President Clinton’s Council of Economic advisers and on the National Economic Council, in addition to advising both Bill Bradley’s and John Kerry’s presidential bids. He has been consulting with Obama since at least April 2007.

Cutler, who specializes in health care and public economics, is a vocal proponent of increasing America’s health care spending, arguing in his most recent book, “Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America’s Health Care System,” that such spending has been worthwhile despite its high costs.

He had planned to be on sabbatical for the spring semester prior to his appointment, and said he plans to return to Harvard after his time in Washington.

“Sometimes you believe in something and the time is right,” Cutler said of his decision to move south.

—Staff writer Elyssa A. L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.

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