Economist Holtz-Eakin opens new healthcare think tank

Former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin has opened a new healthcare-focused think tank in Washington.

{mosads}The Center for Health and Economy won’t issue policy proposals, but rather will score proposals put forth by lawmakers and other think tanks based on its proprietary models.

Holtz-Eakin has a conservative background — he served in the George W. Bush administration and as an adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign — and the center is being funded by a grant from his conservative employer, the American Action Forum.

However, he told The Hill that the new think tank is nonpartisan, has board members across the ideological spectrum and plans to produce clinical analyses of proposals coming from the right and the left.

“We have the capability to make sure that good healthcare modeling comes from both sides,” he said.

The two other founding members are Mark Pauly, a professor at the Wharton School of Business who is often credited as the father of the individual mandate, and Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University professor.