So-called Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber apologized Tuesday for calling voters stupid and for claiming a lack of transparency was necessary to pass the Affordable Care Act.
Gruber, in his first public testimony about the comments, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee he “behaved badly” and “made uninformed and glib comments” that surfaced in recent weeks. In a series of videos that have gone viral, Gruber talks about “the stupidly of the America voter” as a key element in passing the health care law, because it requires healthy people to pay for health insurance coverage of those who are sick.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle publicly condemned Gruber’s comments.
Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in what will likely be his final turn at the helm of the panel, called Gruber’s remarks “symbolic of the misrepresentations put forward about the new law by the Obama administration.”
Gruber told the committee his comments were “conjecture” from a private citizen, and that he was “not the architect of President Obama’s healthcare plan,” but merely the creator of a microsimulation model “to help those in state and federal executive and legislative branches better assess the likely outcome of various possible policy choices.”
Gruber also backtracked on comments that Obamacare opponents say call into question the legality of subsidies for people who live in states that have not created healthcare exchanges.
He said his remarks omitted context and that his microsimulation model intended for residents of all states to be eligible for the subsidies, not just those with state-run exchanges.
The comment is a critical one for Obamacare opponents, who are challenging the law in court based on the wording of the law, which does not specify that federal exchanges qualify for the subsidies.
“You made a series of troubling statements that were not only an insult to the American people but revealed a pattern of intentional misleading the public about the true impact and nature of Obamacare which is, in many ways you helped craft,” Issa said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., told Gruber his comments had armed Obamacare opponents with ammunition they are seeking to undermine or eliminate the law, which in public polling remains somewhat unpopular.
“They were insulting and they were especially harmful, because they gave the opponents of the Affordable Care Act a PR gift,” Cummings said. “Man, you did a great job, you wrapped it up with a bow.”
Cummings also called the hearing “political theater,” and part of an overall effort by the GOP to take down the law, rather than help to implement it more effectively.
Gruber appeared at the witness table with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. Issa denied a request by the Obama Administration not to seat Tavenner at the table with Gruber.
Instead, Republicans sought link the creation of the law with Gruber, who was paid $400,000 by the federal government for his microsimulation model.
Issa said Gruber’s comments about the deceptive nature of the law’s passage underscore how the administration has continued to mislead Congress on the success of the law.
He also pointed to a recent revelation by the Obama Administration that they had erroneously counted about 400,000 dental plans in the enrollment numbers. Because of the miscalculation, they will fall short of the goal of insuring 7 million people.
“The administration claims it made a mistake,” Issa said. “However, there is great skepticism about that and particularly the term mistake, when it appears as though, instead, [Health and Human Services] and CMS were too clever in an attempt to inflate the numbers and say they’d met a goal.”
Tavenner said the law has overall been a success, despite the mistake made calculating enrollment numbers.
“While this mistake was regrettable, it should not obscure the fact that the Affordable Care Act is working,” Tavenner told the panel. “2015 open enrollment is off to a solid start.”
