The MIT economics professor whose simulation models helped the US government design the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was grilled Tuesday by the combative House Oversight Committee over whether he misled the American public.
“Are you stupid, Mr Gruber?” the committee chairman Darryl Issa asked Jonathan Gruber, before comparing the professor to the film character Forrest Gump.
Gruber became a controversial figure in the ongoing battle by Republicans to undermine Obamacare in November, when videos surfaced of him saying at various events that the Affordable Care Act was crafted and presented misleadingly to the American people.
In several of the videos, Gruber referred to the American people as “stupid,” and in one he said that the bill was purposely written “in a tortured way,” and that its “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.”
The comments ignited a political firestorm. Republicans eagerly portrayed Gruber as an “architect” of Obamacare whose comments prove that the American public was misled on the legislation, while Democrats, including the President, quickly distanced themselves from him.
Gruber – whose models also helped then Mitt Romney, then the governor of Massachusetts, design the state healthcare legislation known as “Romneycare” – went in front of the Oversight Committee on Tuesday to apologise, grovel, and be righteously chastised.
“In excerpts of these videos I am shown making a series of glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting comments”, Gruber told the committee. “I am not an expert on politics and my tone implied that I was, which is wrong. In other cases I simply made insulting and mean comments that are totally uncalled for in any situation. I sincerely apologize both for conjecturing with a tone of expertise and for doing so in such a disparaging fashion.
“It is never appropriate to try to make oneself seem more important or smarter by demeaning others. I know better. I knew better”, he continued. “I am embarrassed, and I am sorry”.
The bigger problem with Gruber’s comments, other than the PR headache they caused for the Obama administration, is the bearing they might have on a case now before the supreme court, King v. Burwell.
The plaintiffs in the case are challenging the federal subsidies that underpin the 36 states without state-level health insurance exchanges. If the decision goes against the administration, it is estimated that millions of people could lose the subsidies, and that their premiums could as much as quadruple as a result.
The argument comes down to the minutiae in the wording of the law, which is unclear as to whether subsidies are available to all those using Healthcare.gov, or just in those in states which have set up health insurance exchanges. The challengers to the government say that states using the federal Healthcare.gov exchange are not eligible for subsidies under the wording of the law.
The DC circuit court struck down those subsidies, while the fourth circuit court upheld them. The supreme court decided to hear the case in November, and will likely rule next year.
The bearing that Gruber’s comments have on the supreme court’s deliberations is that, if what he said is taken literally, it implicitly supports the case against the government. Gruber is not a member of the administration – he is an outside contractor – but his comments appear to imply that only states with exchanges could use subsidies.
(His economic modelling, unlike his comments, operated on the assumption that federal exchanges could also use subsidies.)
This might be why during the hearing, Democrat members were as aggressive in their condemnation of Gruber as Republicans.
In fact, the fiercest attack on Gruber came not from Issa, but from the ranking Democrat on the committee, representative Elijah Cummings. “We are here today to beat up on Jonathan Gruber for stupid, I mean absolutely stupid comments he made over the past few years,” he said.
“I am extremely frustrated with Dr Gruber’s statements. They were irresponsible, incredibly disrespectful, and did not reflect reality. And they were indeed insulting.”
With the supreme court case in mind, Cummings was careful to put some clear water between Gruber and the legislative process which produced the ACA. “Dr Gruber does not speak for me, or the chairmen of the other committees who worked tirelessly on this bill.
“Worst of all,” he continued, “Dr Gruber’s statements gave Republicans a public relations gift in their relentless political campaign to tear down the ACA and eliminate healthcare for millions of Americans”.
