There’s good reason to believe that while the White House seeks to minimize fall-out from now the infamous remarks of ObamaCare architect, Jonathan Gruber and tamp down opposition to the Affordable Care Act, things are moving in the exact opposite direction as we move through the Holiday season.
Gruber, along with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavennerhas, are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Dec. 9. The outgoing chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), has been a harsh critic of the White House and the law.
The hearings will help to put Gruber’s comments citing the lack of transparency behind ObamaCare and the notion of the stupidity of the American voter helping to pass it back in the news again.
In addition to that, there is the ongoing open enrollment period, which has routinely failed to meet expectations. Meanwhile, ObamaCare has suffered other set-backs, as well.
A Republican investigation revealed Nov. 20 that ObamaCare enrollment figures at HHS were inflated by roughly 400,000 people after the department miscounted dental plans as medical coverage.
The Obama administration was not pleased with the Supreme Court this month when it decided to hear King v. Burwell, a case that challenges the validity of subsidies distributed through ObamaCare’s federally run exchanges.
Coverage of that case distracted from the fact, however, that the administration faces mounting challenges to the law’s birth control mandate from non-profit groups.