Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber was reportedly aware that the Affordable Care Act would prove to be unaffordable for Americans at the time the bill was being created with the White House, according to a shocking admission by President Obama's health care adviser.
In an October 2009 policy brief, Gruber said that Obamacare had no cost controls in it and would definitely not be affordable for its customers, The Daily Caller reported in an exclusive report. The shocking information comes as Gruber, who served on Obama's presidential transition team, continues to withhold documents while awaiting a call-back for more testimonies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2015.
Crafted in 2009, "the Affordable Care Act actually refers to two separate pieces of legislation - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152) - that, together expand Medicaid coverage to millions of low-income Americans and makes numerous improvements to both Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)," according to Medicaid.gov.
Since Gruber's controversial comments about how a lack of transparency and the stupidity of voters helped pass the health care law made national headlines last month, more details revealing the deceptions that went into writing the health-care law continue to emerge.
At the time of the policy brief, Obama had told the American people that their premiums would go down dramatically, after having being personally counseled by Gruber.
"The problem is it starts to go hand in hand with the mandate; you can't mandate insurance that's not affordable. This is going to be a major issue," Gruber admitted in an October 2, 2009 lecture, the transcript of which comprised the policy brief.
"So what's different this time? Why are we closer than we've ever been before? Because there are no cost controls in these proposals. Because this bill's about coverage. Which is good! Why should we hold 48 million uninsured people hostage to the fact that we don't yet know how to control costs in a politically acceptable way? Let's get the people covered and then let's do cost control."
Going a step further, Gruber states that effectively denying treatment would be the only way to control costs.
"The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can't have something they want. It's about telling patients, 'That surgery doesn't do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost.'"
"There's no reason the American health care system can't be, 'You can have whatever you want, you just have to pay for it.' That's what we do in other walks of life. We don't say everyone has to have a large screen TV. If you want a large screen TV, you have to pay for it. Basically the notion would be to move to a level where everyone has a solid basic insurance level of coverage. Above that people pay on their own, without tax-subsidized dollars, to buy a higher level of coverage."
Not surprisingly, Obama was aware that the health care bill was unlikely to control costs despite his contradictory claims, Gruber said.
"I wish that President Obama could have stood up and said, 'You know, I don't know if this bill is going to control costs. It might, it might not. We're doing our best. But let me tell you what it's going to do..." Gruber said on a San Francisco podcast in 2012.
"If he could make that speech? Instead, he says 'I'm going to pass a bill that will lower your health care costs.' That sells. Now, I wish the world was different. I wish people cared about the 50 million uninsured in America...But, you know, they don't. And I think, once again, I'm amazed politically that we got this bill through."
Meanwhile, participation under the Affordable Health Care for America Act (ACA) exchange health plans is being declined by over 214,000 American physicians, according to a new survey by Medical Group Management Association, a trade group comprised of multi-physician medical practices.
Through May 2014, a significant number of 214,524 doctors, estimated by American Action Forum, have decided to not take part in any ACA exchange services, since those plans will most likely force them to take on additional burdensome costs, according to CNSNews.com.
Last month, an investigation revealed that the number of Obamacare plans nationwide offering coverage for on-demand abortion had reportedly exceeded over a thousand insurance plans despite a rule that prohibited using healthcare subsidies to pay for abortions.
Two days before that, the House Oversight Committee had discovered that the Obama administration's much touted first-round enrollment figure of 7.3 million wrongly included about 400,000 people who had only purchased dental plans.
