[![Michael F. Cannon](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/Michael%20Cannon.jpg?itok=CysVdsIU)](https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2021-01/Michael-Cannon.jpg) 

[Policy Scholars](/experts) 

# Michael F. Cannon 

Director of Health Policy Studies

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Michael F. Cannon is the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies. His scholarship spans public health; regulation of clinicians, medical facilities, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices; employer-sponsored and other private health insurance; Medicare; Medicaid; CHIP; the Veterans Health Administration; medical malpractice litigation; administrative law; international health systems; political philosophy; and more. Cannon is “an influential health‐​care wonk” (*Washington Post*) and “the most famous libertarian health care scholar” (*Washington Examiner*). *Washingtonian* magazine named Cannon one of Washington, DC’s Most Influential People in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Cannon has appeared on ABC, Al Jazeera, BBC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, C‑SPAN, Fox News, NPR, and other broadcast media. His articles have appeared in the *Wall Street Journal*; the *New York Times*; *USA Today*; the *Washington Post*; the *Los Angeles Times*; *SCOTUSBlog*; *Forum for Health Economics and Policy*; *JAMA Internal Medicine*; *National Affairs; Health Matrix: Journal of Law‐​Medicine*; *Harvard Health Policy Review*; the *Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics*; the *Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law*; the *Quinnipiac Health Law Journal*; and *Social Philosophy & Policy*. His latest book is [*Recovery: A Guide to Reforming the US Health Sector*](https://www.cato.org/books/recovery).

Cannon was previously a domestic policy analyst for the US Senate Republican Policy Committee, where he advised the Senate leadership on health, education, labor, welfare, and the Second Amendment. He is a member of the Board of Advisers of *Harvard Health Policy Review*, the [Policy Advisory Board](https://healthreformers.academy/who-we-are/) of Health Reforms Academy, and the Federalist Society’s Health Executive Committee.

Cannon holds an MA in economics and a JM in law and economics from George Mason University and a BA in American government from the University of Virginia.

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##### Featured Book 

### *[Recovery: A Guide to Reforming the U.S. Health Sector](https://www.cato.org/books/recovery)*

Health care in the United States is not a free market. In many ways, U.S. residents are less free to make their own health decisions than residents of other nations. In this book*, Recovery* shows that making health care as universal as possible requires ending all barriers that government places in the way of better, more affordable, and more secure health care.

[Read about the Book](https://www.cato.org/books/recovery)