Gruber, Tavenner Tell House Oversight Committee HHS Made Mistakes
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
‘Inexcusable’ was their mantra in reference to various actions in the ObamaCare saga.
MIT economist Jonathan Gruber and CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during a four-hour hearing to describe their actions on December 9. According to Modern Healthcare, “inexcusable” was their mantra, in reference to a series of actions taken by HHS during the unveiling of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Prior to the hearing, it became clear that no one at HHS wanted to join the table with Gruber, the reputed “architect” of Obamacare. Last week, Politico reported Jim Esquea, assistant secretary for legislation at HHS, made a request to the committee, asking “that Administer Tavenner be provided the opportunity to testify on a panel comprised solely of government witnesses.
“Executive Branch officials are almost always afforded an opportunity to testify on a panel either alone or with other government witnesses.” Gruber was the only other witness scheduled to appear before the committee, although Gruber and Tavenner were being summoned to testify on separate issues.
Gruber’s characterizations of Obamacare in the media has caused HHS and the Obama Administration to distance themselves from him, with the President recently referring to him as “an adviser who was never on our staff,” according to Politico.
Before the House committee, Gruber issued a profuse apology, as Rep. Darrell Issa issued accusations of creating a false model that was part of “a pattern of intentional misleading” by the Administration to get the ACA enacted, according to Fox News.
Issa told Gruber, “You made a series of troubling statements that were not only an insult to the American people, but revealed a pattern of intentional misleading [of] the public about the true impact and nature of Obamacare.”
In his apology, Gruber said, despite his earlier comments asserting that a lack of transparency helped get the law enacted, he does not believe that the ACA was passed in a “non-transparent fashion,” and went on to express regret for his “glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting comments,” according to Fox News. “I sincerely apologize for conjecturing with a tone of expertise and for doing so in such a disparaging fashion. I knew better. I know better. I'm embarrassed and I'm sorry.”
Invoking what became something of a mantra at the hearing, Gruber admitted that he “behaved badly” but that “my own inexcusable arrogance is not a flaw in the Affordable Care Act.”
The Committee also attacked Tavenner as head of CMS, in particular alleging that the agency inflated enrollment numbers. Initial assessments from the agency claimed enrollment of 7.3 million; those figures were later reduced to 6.7 million, an action that Issa called an attempt to “doctor the books” by including dental plan numbers.
Tavenner apologized for the confusion over enrollment figures, stating “It was an inexcusable mistake,” according to Modern Healthcare. “It should not have happened in the first place.”
When Tavenner was questioned regarding the possibility that exchange subsidies could be withdrawn in roughly two-thirds of the states, with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asking why exchange customers aren't being informed about that risk when they sign up for coverage, Tavenner replied, “This is not a closed case, and I'm not going to speculate. Nothing has changed for consumers.”