We previously discussed the statements of Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who played a major role the ACA, or “Obamacare,” where he repeatedly endorsed the theory at the heart of the recent decisions in Halbig and King by challengers to the ACA: to wit, that the federal funding provision was a quid pro quo device to reward states with their own exchanges and to punish those that force the creation of federal exchanges. That issue will now be decided by the United States Supreme Court. Gruber caused a considerable controversy when, after he had denounced the theory as “nutty” during the arguments in Halbig and King, he was shown later to have embraced that same interpretation. Having been paid almost $400,000 as an architect of the ACA, Gruber has become a major liability in the litigation. Now Gruber is back in the news with an equally startling admission that the Obama Administration (and Gruber) succeeded in passing the ACA only by engineering a “lack of transparency” on the details and relying on “the stupidity of the American voter.”
Gruber’s remarks were made on a panel given roughly a year ago on Oct. 17, 2013. Notably, this was at the height of the tension over the ACA. While I have long supported national health care, I was critical of the sloppy drafting of the ACA, the federalism conflicts contained in the individual mandate provision, and the unsupportable claims made by the White House in selling the Act. The last concern was the subject of Gruber’s comments. Gruber told the crowd that the “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.” He also said that “basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”
Gruber also later states that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.) is someone who “as far as I can tell, doesn’t understand economics” while calling a staffer for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine) an “idiot.” The later reference appears to be a reference to aide William Pewen.
The specific comments on the bill are transcribed as follows:
“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so it’s written to do that. In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass… Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.”
I was concerned that these lines were taken out of context so I watched the video below:
What is fascinating is that Gruber is open about what has long been hidden in this Administration: the lack of transparency as a tactical political vehicle. The ACA was pushed through by a muscle vote on a handful of votes while the Administration made claims that he later had to admit were misleading at best, such as the President’s repeated assurance that citizens could keep your current insurance policy if you liked it.
Gruber also admits that the Administration crafted the law to avoid it being supported by a tax despite Chief Justice John Roberts’ later decision that it was a tax. Gruber says that, while he would have preferred to be honest and open, such considerations had to be set aside in the interests of passing the law — even by less than honest means.
In a truly ironic twist, the University of Pennsylvania tried to pull back the admission on the lack of transparency by pulling the video:
It was too late. The video was out.
In fairness to Gruber, he was doing what an academic is supposed to do in honestly assessing what he believed occurred in the historic passage of the ACA. While he later sought to deny the earlier comments that he made on the state exchanges (in a less than candid moment), there is thus far no comment from him on this latest video. As in the earlier admissions, there has been little relative coverage by the mainstream media of the comments. Once again, the lack of media attention is surprising given the importance of Gruber to the ACA and the Administration.
UPDATE: Gruber went on MSNBC to say that his comments were “inappropriate” while the host insisted that his comments were misunderstood as “nuanced” observations.
Annie
I for one do not find it impressive that you paste in a bunch of links to far left wing web sites like the Columbia Journalism Review and WaPo. Why not just tell the people on this thread the truth: You do not depend on Medicare.
I am not criticizing you, just asking you to be honest with the other people reading this. Almost no one Medicare depends on Medicare. On average, Medicare covers less than half the healthcare costs of a person on Medicare. (On the PPACA Bronze-Platinum scale, Medicare is Cardboard Insurance.) It has lifetime and per-incident limits on coverage. It has very high co-pays and deductibles. It has no annual out of pocket spending limit. It does not cover self-administered drugs. It does not cover vision, dental or hearing services. It does not even cover an annual physical.
In case anyone has the time and the endurance level, the entire 51 minutes of video from that conference is here: http://ldi.upenn.edu/ahec2013/agenda
The other economist on the panel, Mark Pauly, had a way of seeming to agree w/ Gruber while actually criticizing just about every aspect of the ACA. What really comes thru in the entire video is how weak the economic arguments for the ACA really are. Pretty much both speakers agreed that it was a good idea to eliminate the economic distortion created by the tax exemption for employer-provided insurance, but beyond that their arguments hinged on blatant paternalism.
I agree w/ Pauly that the only real policy we need to cover people w/ pre-existing conditions is a federal high-risk pool. And we should remember that a lot of states already had such pools before O’care.
The ACA is an exercise in social engineering unprecedented in scope, foisted upon us by arrogant fools who consider themselves our betters. It is the antithesis of how policy should be designed, debated, and enacted in a free society.
DBQ, my articles refute yours.:)
Slohrss, cost containment is essential. It may be painful, but one day the bubble will burst and it will hurt even more when that happens.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Medicare_Doctors_082012.html
Primary care physicians opting out of Medicare or taking new Medicare patients.
🙂
At 65 you get signed up for medicare. Part A, hospitalization, is at no additional charge. Part B, covering the rest of it, is deducted from your SS, and you are signed up for it automatically. You can opt out but if you change your mind later you have to pay extra for every year that you were opted out and the extra premium is forever. Medicare has an annual deductible, there are co-pays, and it doesn’t cover everything. When you are signed up you will get a book every year written in government speak that tells you what’s what.
If I can butt in here, I would personally like to see the medical establishment protections restructured before any new program from the government is put in place. People seem to think medical costs are “untouchable” or “a phenomenon” like the weather. I would like to see more market forces in the healthcare arena, instead of cost protections. All you have to do is look at some projected costs and realize, no matter who is paying for it now, it can’t continue. I don’t wish anyone poor fortune in life, but I think if my neighbor ENT had 4 merks instead of 6 I would feel a little better about it.
http://www.cjr.org/the_second_opinion/how_many_doctors_still_take_medicare.php
Medicare uncovered: How many doctors still take Medicare. MOST OF THEM.
California doctors boycotting Covered California/Obamacare
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/doctors-boycotting-californias-obamacare-exchange/article/2540272
Independent insurance brokers who work with both insurance companies and doctor networks estimate that about 70 percent of California’s 104,000 licensed doctors are boycotting the exchange.
AND
not only are many doctors not participating, but many are also thinking of retiring.
“I just turned 55, and a lot of us are kind of going, ‘Maybe there’s something else we can do in the last 10 years,’ because this is just getting too onerous to keep on going.”
OBAMA – GRUBER – JOHN ROBERTS – THE SUPREME COURT
Co-conspirators in the abuse of power by the government against the people, including acts to defraud, to unconstitutionally impose Obamacare.
Obama, Gruber, Chief Justice John Roberts et al. shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for corruption, negligence, dereliction, subversion, insurrection and treason, with aggravated “hate crime” charges for allegations of “stupidity” as insubordination of the sovereignty of the American people.
These actions are egregious and actionable with impeachment and conviction imperative and the sole remaining ethical, moral and legal course.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/americans-hate-government-but-they-love-medicare-social-security-and-environmental-regulations/2012/08/02/gJQApvRQSX_blog.html
Americans may hate government but they love Medicare and Social Security.
Medicare doesn’t cover the total cost, we ALL know this. We all know that supplemental private insurance policies are being used in conjunction with Medicare. Americans still love Medicare.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-most-americans-say-medicare-is-worth-the-cost/
Poll: Most Americans say Medicare is worth the cost.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/09/04/Are-Doctors-Really-Ditching-Medicare
Are doctors really ditching Medicare?
Annie
Maybe it’s in some of these messages somewhere but in your dozen comments telling people how great your Medicare is, please tell the readers what private insurance you use as a supplement. Almost everyone on Medicare (over 90%) has a supplement of some type because Medicare is so bad. If you are part of the less than 10% who don’t supplement Medicare, you are either very rich or feeling very very lucky
Doctors who are refusing to accept Medicare patients, is minuscule.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/opinion/sunday/doctors-and-their-medicare-patients.html?_r=0
unless I am very badly informed, once you reach 65 you will be on Medicare, like it or not.
If you are currently working and covered by an employer plan or covered under your spouse’s employer plan you can opt out of Medicare Part B and D without the penalties that would occur if you just didn’t opt in. Part A is there whether you like it or not, but there is NO COST for part A since you have already paid in during your working life. Part A basically covers doodely squat and many providers are choosing not to take on Medicare patients.
Part B currently costs about @$100 a month if you opt in. A Medicare Supplemental plan will pay for the parts that A and B do not pay. It can cost around $130 a month depending on which level of coverage you choose and your geographical location. If you are not covered under an employer plan you are charged a premium penalty for every year you don’t sign up and fork over that $100 a month. Same thing with Part D. Premium penalties for not signing up even if you take NO prescriptions.
Our current doctor is retiring because of Obamacare. The costs to his office are huge. This will leave one doctor, a new guy right out of med school, in the office and a PA. Not only does it not pay enough to cover the cost of the services he provides, it requires additional personnel to do all of the mandated computerized record keeping. He has to have additional people to process all of the paperwork and keep track of all of the bazillion codes. It requires that he has an assistant at every doctor/patient meeting to type in all of the computerized information and codes during the examination. Either that or he spends all of his time fighting with a computer instead of examining patients.
Obamacare is intrusive and expensive.
As a result of several doctors in our small rural practices are quitting, the hospital is seeing less business because people have to go to another town to see their doctors and are referred to those hospitals. The hospital is in very poor financial shape and may be closing as anything other than an emergency care/ER. This will be devastating to the economy and an extreme hardship for people who need hospitalization care.
The next hospital is over 90 miles away. The next doctor’s office, should this one completely close is about 60 miles away. Many of THOSE doctors also do not take medicare or medicaid or any other insurance. They are by contract only. Buy a membership and get a set of routine services available for that fee. Additional services and diagnostic procedures are charged ala carte. Referrals to specialists are available……many of whom are also opting out of the insurance system.
So…if you live in SF or NYC….you might still have some choices on doctors. Live in the suburbs or further out….you are screwed.
Thanks Obama. Thanks Democraps.
This story reminds me of something…
I had great hearing when I joined the Navy and that was essential to my job as a Sonar Technician. Hearing loss is just one of the many occupational hazards associated with the shipboard environment. We would have routine audio-grams and after awhile, I would pretend (click the button) even when I couldn’t hear the tone so I could pass. I was only fooling myself and it was not surprising to have my baseline reset as a result of the loss. I never really understood what good resetting my baseline did for me as they never treated the loss; it seemed to be more of a paperwork drill. Had I took the time to do something about it back then, I would not have the damage today.
The vetting of candidates for President is about setting an accurate baseline expectation of future constitutional governance. If done objectively and thoroughly, we’ll weed out those that will fail and only select those from which a reasonable baseline can be deduced. Obama is an anomaly in that not only did he not provide anything to set a baseline; he was artificially granted one inversely proportional to his vacant public record. Logically, the only place to go was down and as he stumbled through his first inaugural address, it may have begun sooner than expected.
Obama has provided numerous opportunities for reasonable people to reset their baseline of his presidency; certainly much lower than where it currently exists. I can even understand why his supporters, though tone-deaf, have been ‘clicking’ their way through his presidency. But what amount of damage will be enough for them to finally admit this entire administration has lived up to the baseline it deserved; not the baseline it was granted?
Mr. Turley
The Obamacare architect admits lying to the Congressional Budget Office and depending on the American voter not knowing what is going on and you say
“Once again, the lack of media attention is surprising…”
Why? How was the American voter supposed to know given that the media never provided the facts in the first place?
Paul…unless the ACA is changed sooner than later, that Cadillac policy may wind up with an annual 40% or so “fee” (aka a tax per John Roberts). Heck, I am even afraid my FEHBP coverage is at risk for that. My deductible is tiny and co-pays are very minimal, actually less than what the contract calls for…we can’t have that now can we 🙂
itchinBayDog here. You folks walking around on two legs need to stand on your own two legs and renounce socialism and communism. Medical insurance is just another specie of socialism. Each pay your own way. Each bargain for a better deal. This is why we dogs have a phrase:
Four legs good, two legs baaaaad! You folks need to make the Republicans do what they promised. Repeal Obamacare and Socialized medical care of all stripes. Blue Cross is socialized medicine. Try to nail that Blue Cross on the wall and it will bleed blood which is red not blue. Republicon if you know what I mean. Do away with all that. Get rid of censorship too. I can not even spell my name on this blog unless I resort to Pig Latin.