James C. Capretta is a Resident Fellow and holds the Milton Friedman Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies health care, entitlement, and US budgetary policy, as well as global trends in aging, health, and retirement programs. In 2015 and 2016, he directed two major studies: one on reforming US health care according to market principles and consumer choice, and the second on reforming major federal entitlement programs to promote greater personal responsibility, focus limited resources on those most in need, and lower long-term federal expenditures.
Mr. Capretta spent more than 16 years in public service before joining AEI. As an associate director at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004, he was responsible for all health care, Social Security, welfare, and labor and education issues. Earlier, he served as a senior health policy analyst at the US Senate Budget Committee and at the US House Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Capretta was also a fellow, later a senior fellow, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Mr. Capretta’s essays and reports include “Improving Health and Health Care: An Agenda for Reform” (AEI, 2015); “The Budget Act at Forty: Time for Budget Process Reform” (Mercatus Center, 2015); and “Increasing the Effectiveness and Sustainability of the Nation’s Entitlement Programs” (AEI, 2016). His book chapters include “Health-Care Reform to Lower Costs and Improve Access and Quality” in Room to Grow: Conservative Reforms for a Limited Government and a Thriving Middle Class (YG Network, 2014); and “Reforming Medicaid” in The Economics of Medicaid: Assessing the Costs and Consequences (Mercatus Center, 2014).
He has been widely published in newspapers, magazines, and trade journals, including Health Affairs (where he is a member of the Editorial Board), The JAMA Forum, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Weekly Standard.
Mr. Capretta has an M.A. in public policy studies from Duke University and a B.A. in government from the University of Notre Dame.