Last Saturday, Breitbart News uncovered three reports and analysis written by Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist and chief architect of Obamacare, stating that subsidies or tax credits will be provided to individuals “to purchase health insurance from private companies through state-organized exchanges.”
These reports were discovered after a video clip surfaced of Gruber making similar comments on the clip. Gruber said his remarks were a “mistake” made while “speaking off-the-cuff.”
One of the three reports, titled “The Facts Straight on Health Care Reform,” was written by Gruber for The New England Journal of Medicine in December 2009.
Breitbart has since learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) used this same article to defend itself in the case filed by the Commonwealth of Virginia. In the lawsuit, the Commonwealth argued that Congress has exceeded its Article 1 powers in enacting Obamacare. Page six of HHS’s October 4, 2010, Reply Memorandum in Support of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment states:
The “guaranteed issue” and “community rating” reforms are regulations of insurance policies placed into Interstate commerce, and those reforms depend directly on the minimum coverage provision to work. See, e,g., Jonathan Gruber, Getting the Facts Straight on Health Care Reform, 361 NEW ENGL.J. OF MED. 2497, 2498 (2009).
HHS’s use of the Gruber article raises a key question: Why would the Obama administration and Obamacare supporters claim that the president’s health care law contained a “typo” stating only state exchanges are eligible for subsidies if the Obama administration itself used an article by Obamacare architect Gruber stating the exact opposite?
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