Jonathan gruber biography

For other people named Jonathan Gruber, see Jonathan Gruber (disambiguation).

Jonathan Gruber is an American director of documentary films, commercials, and videos. He is Jewish.

Projects that Gruber directed and produced have screened at festivals and in theaters nationwide and around the world, and have aired on PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, Discovery Networks, and more.

His film, Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story, was an in depth look into the private life of the man who became the hero and pivotal strategist in the Israeli rescue of the Israeli hostages from Entebbe, Uganda following the hijacking of an Air France plane by Palestinian militants, which Idi Amin permitted to land in his country. After the Jewish and Israeli passengers were separated and threatened, the Israeli government quickly devised Operation Entebbe, which ended with the rescue of the passengers, but the death of Netanyahu. The film won awards at several national film festivals.

Gruber also directed a film about the American Civil War, Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray, and two other notable films. Jonathan currently has one film in development, another in pre-production, and runs a successful film and video production company, Black Eye Productions, which is hired for corporate, PSA, and non-profit work. He was a co-creator and director on the 2018 MSNBC series, The Story of Cool.

Filmography

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Other Resources

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.

During the 1997-1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. From 2003-2006 he was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. During 2009-2010 he served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the Administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In 2011 he was named “One of the Top 25 Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time” by Slate Magazine. In both 2006 and 2012 he was rated as one of the top 100 most powerful people in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine. In 2020 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

American economist

Jonathan Holmes Gruber (born September 30, 1965) is an American professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He is also the director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a research associate. An associate editor of both the Journal of Public Economics and the Journal of Health Economics, Gruber has been heavily involved in crafting public health policy.

He has been described as a key architect of both the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform, sometimes referred to as "Romneycare", and the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as the "ACA" and "Obamacare". He became the focus of media and political controversy in late 2014 when videos surfaced in which he made controversial statements about the legislative process, marketing strategies, and public perception surrounding the passage of the ACA.

Early life and education

Gruber was born on September 30, 1965, the son of Martin Jay Gruber and Ellie Gruber. His father is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business, having taught there for more than 40 years. Jonathan Gruber was raised in the New York suburb of Ridgewood, New Jersey. He completed his BS in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 and his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1992, with a thesis titled Changes in the Structure of Employer-Provided Health Insurance. He has 3 children, Rachel, Jack, and Ava Gruber.

Academic research career

Gruber began his career as an assistant professor of economics at MIT in 1992. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Gruber's research has focused on public finance and health economics. He has published over 150 research articles and has had his h

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 t