Beleaguered Obamacare adviser Jonathan Gruber declared he was not “the architect” of the health law as House Republicans on Tuesday hit hard at a pair of scandals that have overshadowed an otherwise successful launch of the second sign-up season.
“I was not the ‘architect’ of President Obama’s health care plan,” the MIT economist told the House Oversight committee, as he repeatedly apologized and dismissed as “mean” and “glib” his own remarks about the passage of Obamacare and the “stupidity” of the American voter that have fueled controversy.
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“I am not a political adviser nor a politician,” said Gruber, who was a key economic adviser during the drafting of the law. He said his comments were “thoughtless” and “downright insulting” at times. He also drew the ire of committee Republicans for not disclosing all his income from state and federal consulting contracts, and Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa threatened to bring him back for yet another hearing if he didn’t divulge a fuller picture of what taxpayers had paid him.
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Tuesday’s hearing was the GOP’s last best shot at Obamacare this Congress, and even Democrats showed their annoyance with Gruber’s videotaped comments attributing Obamacare’s passage to a lack of transparency and voter “stupidity.” The Gruber videotapes have become a conservative media sensation and a highly unwelcome distraction for the White House. Fox News carried the opening portions of the hearing live.
“Are you stupid? … Does MIT employ stupid people?” Issa asked Gruber, before asking him to explain his remarks as a “smart person” at a respected institution. Later Gruber was asked if he understood what a tax was, as the Republicans tangled with Gruber about the health law’s individual mandate penalty.
Medicare administrator Marilyn Tavenner was the other key witness, and she too spent her time on apologies — in her case for giving the committee inflated Obamacare enrollment numbers earlier this fall. The administration included nearly 400,000 dental plans, giving the false impression that it had surpassed the 7 million enrollment goal. Tavenner said that was a mistake, arising from counting payments to health plans instead of tallying the number of covered people.
Issa said Gruber and Tavenner “are a perfect pairing, a pairing of individuals who are responsible for what we know and don’t know before during and after the passage of the Affordable Care Act.”
(POLITICO Magazine: Will Jonathan Gruber topple Obamacare?)
The “stupidity” remarks have fueled “Grubergate” but a different Gruber videotaped statement is arguably more consequential. He seemed to endorse the ideas behind a suit known as King v. Burwell before the Supreme Court that argues that Obamacare subsidies, designed to make insurance more affordable, are forbidden by law to people who use the federal marketplace HealthCare.gov. Thirty-seven states are using HealthCare.gov in 2015, after deciding not to set up their own “exchanges” or having tried and failed.
Gruber — who did crucial economic analysis while the bill was being written but said he was not among its drafters — repudiated any support for that lawsuit and said the video lacked context. He said his own economic model, which was the basis for his work on the health law, had always assumed that the subsidies would be available in all states, whether they ran their own exchange or used the federal option.
“I have a long-standing and well-documented belief that health care reform in general, and the ACA in particular, must include mechanisms for residents in all states to obtain tax credits,” Gruber said.
Issa called on CMS Administrator Tavenner to account for the inflated enrollment numbers in September. The exaggeration continued in another estimate last month.
Tavenner said the inclusion of nearly 400,000 dental plans in the total sign-up count — a break with past practice — was “an inexcusable mistake.” Federal officials later dialed back the estimate to 6.7 million people with Obamacare medical coverage as of Oct. 15.
But she did clarify, in response to a question from Oversight Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, that she did not know the number was inflated with dental plans when she first gave it to the committee and that she didn’t believe anyone on her staff was trying to fool lawmakers or the public.
“I do not believe anyone tried to deceive the American people, and I believe the error was inadvertent,” Tavenner said. She said that the revised figure “was a large number that we are pleased with” and again apologized for the mistake.
The GOP has demanded details, however, and Issa said that CMS has not been forthcoming.
He said that a “huge data dump” — delivered Monday night on the “misleading” enrollment numbers — did not include documents on “the talking points” that allowed Tavenner to use “careful language so that you didn’t lie, but you did deceive.”
Tavenner pledged to work with the committee to provide those documents.
The hearing Tuesday is Issa’s last as chairman of the Oversight Committee. Congress is expected to pass a bill that will fund nearly all of the government through this fiscal year later this week and then recess until January, when the new Congress will be sworn in.
Rachana Pradhan contributed reporting
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