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Obamacare Architect Blames Cancelled Policies on Greedy Consumers
Townhall.com ^ | November 15, 2013 | Michael Schaus

Posted on 11/15/2013 11:10:52 AM PST by Kaslin

One of Obamacare’s primary architects, MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, has explained away the millions who have lost their insurance as “genetic lottery winners” who should be responsible for funding insurance for the rest of the nation. He went on to describe our previous insurance system as “discriminatory” and added profoundly to the pile of lies Obamacare supporters have been amassing. Apparently Gruber decided it wasn’t enough to legislate millions of citizens out of their life-saving insurance – he felt like he should insult them as well.

Lie number 4,532 (roughly) regarding Obamacare was repeated again on MSNBC when Gruber suggested that employer sponsored coverage plans would be untouched by the recent rash of cancellations. According to the White House’s internal memos, however, employees with health coverage will also find themselves joining the ranks of the uninsured, as 51 million Americans lose their plans. (Then again, should we really trust the White House at this point? Maybe we should call this a “lowballed estimate”.)

Gruber outdoes himself a few short seconds later when he refers to the millions of Americans (political translation: potential voters) who lost their coverage as “genetic lottery winners.” Implying that the healthy consumers are mere anomalies of nature, and not healthy by virtue of their non-smoking, dietary-conscious, exercise-rich lifestyle is insulting enough. . . But calling Americans who just lost their cancer-killing healthcare a “genetic lottery winner” is a bit of an over-reach.

Millions of the Americans who are being dropped from their plans are the exact people Obama promised to help with his signature piece of legislation. But, because they are more than statistics, many of these consumers made the economically and fiscally responsible choice to purchase tailored insurance plans that catered to their pre-existing condition, without the added cost of trivial services like Sandra Fluke approved contraception coverage. And now these millions are being dropped. . . They are losing their life saving coverage and doctors because of Gruber’s perverse sense of “fairness”. . . Yeah, I bet they feel like real lottery winners alright.

(As a peripheral thought: How do you think Obamacare would have done in the legislature if Gruber’s comments were part of the sales pitch?)

For an MIT professor, Gruber seems wildly incapable of understanding the concept of insurance coverage. Of course insurers charge more for coverage of preexisting conditions. The alternative is to charge healthy people more to subsidize the cost, therefore reducing incentives to remain healthy. (Light up the Lucky Strikes and pour the whiskey. . . Obamacare will help lower your costs by overcharging all those healthy lottery winners who refuse to blacken their lungs and weaken their liver.)

The simple truth is that Gruber, the President, and anyone who took the time to critically glance over the meat of the legislation, knew that millions would lose their insurance. The moral judgment Gruber makes regarding the 5 million Americans who lost the plans they liked is irrelevant given the sales pitch he and Obamacare advocates shoveled at the American people.

And, now, with over 5 million newly uninsured Americans, the President has decided to use the “enforcement discretion” of the Executive Branch to relieve Americans from the consequence of his signature bill.

That’s right. . . President Obama has decided to flex the constitutionally questionable powers of the Executive Branch to delay enforcement of his own healthcare bill. Why? Well aside from the fact that he understands next year is an election year, he also understands that a narrative must be built.

Trotting out in front of the US media, President Obama squarely placed all blame for future cancellations on the insurance companies. His executive decision mandates that insurers let their consumers know what important benefits (such as maternity care for men and elderly couples) they will be missing out on by staying with their current plans. (Oh, and these plans will still be illegal by the end of 2014.) The President’s “fix” to Obamacare’s key implementation effect is merely a political Band-Aid designed to give his fellow Democrats cover in 2014.

But, according to the advocates of Big Government’s involvement in Big Insurance, all of this will work out. After all, as the Grubers of the world would tell you, the only people losing their insurance are genetic lottery winners who greedily refuse to pay for their neighbor’s medical bills. You would think that the architect of the nation’s most comprehensive healthcare bill would be slightly more sensitive to the idiocy of “blaming the victim”.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
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1 posted on 11/15/2013 11:10:52 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Oh yeah. That’s going to help A LOT.


2 posted on 11/15/2013 11:13:18 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools)
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To: Kaslin

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Professor Komrade Jonathan Gruber. Another Leftist lying to the kids as a profession. I hope parents pull their kids out of his class!


3 posted on 11/15/2013 11:14:30 AM PST by PATRIOT1876
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To: Kaslin

I thought that you had to have an IQ in AT LEAST double digits to be a professor at MIT


4 posted on 11/15/2013 11:15:46 AM PST by PATRIOT1876
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To: Kaslin
One thing we cannot allow is for people to make decisions based upon their own best interests.

That's why government has to make those decisions for them.

5 posted on 11/15/2013 11:17:45 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: Kaslin

How in the world, can a man be raised in this country believing any of that crap?


6 posted on 11/15/2013 11:17:48 AM PST by edcoil (System now set up not to allow some to win but for no one to lose!)
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To: Kaslin

So Obama supporters have inferior genetics. Hmm. I thought they were just uninformed but he says they are stupid. Ok i give. He is right.


7 posted on 11/15/2013 11:18:08 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (On the evening of 10/16/13, the ailing republican party breathed its last breath.)
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To: Kaslin

This Gruber fellow seems like a pretty smart guy, not everyone is born with the brains to be a prof at MIT. I think it is only fair to adjust his income to match that of a median worker’s in his county.


8 posted on 11/15/2013 11:18:22 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There's no salvation in politics.)
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To: Kaslin

Jonathan Gruber

In January 2010, after news emerged that Gruber was under a $297,000 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services, while at the same time promoting the Obama administration's health care reform policies

During the 1997-1998 academic year, Dr. Gruber was on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. From 2003-2006 he was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. In that year, he was named the 19th most powerful person in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine. During the 2008 election he was a consultant to the Clinton, Edwards and Obama Presidential campaigns. During 2009-2010 he served as a technical consultant to the Obama Administration and worked with both the Administration and Congress to help craft the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In his op-ed of December 4, 2008 in the New York Times titled "Medicine for the Job Market", Gruber argued that expanding health insurance, even in these grim financial times would further stimulate the economy.

9 posted on 11/15/2013 11:20:39 AM PST by kcvl
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To: Kaslin

No higher taxes for the middle and lower income folks...another lie


10 posted on 11/15/2013 11:20:52 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin

He’s throwing himself under the bus. What a tool.


11 posted on 11/15/2013 11:21:06 AM PST by b4its2late (A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I just called Obama to come mow my yard. I can’t figure out how to start the mower.


12 posted on 11/15/2013 11:21:45 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (On the evening of 10/16/13, the ailing republican party breathed its last breath.)
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To: kcvl

Fag


13 posted on 11/15/2013 11:22:22 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Kaslin

Schadenfreude, baby. It’s great to see these intellectual midgets who love Communism exposed for the idiot savants they are.


14 posted on 11/15/2013 11:22:39 AM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: Dr. Sivana

Good idea.


15 posted on 11/15/2013 11:22:48 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (On the evening of 10/16/13, the ailing republican party breathed its last breath.)
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To: kcvl

so embarrassing in so many ways....


16 posted on 11/15/2013 11:23:48 AM PST by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: Kaslin

As long as one has a penny more wealth than another then one is greedy to these people.
Communism running amok!


17 posted on 11/15/2013 11:24:00 AM PST by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: Kaslin

remember that these are commies.

When they say you will be “better off” think of Cuba, North Korea, Argentina, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.


18 posted on 11/15/2013 11:26:01 AM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: kcvl

—— Gruber was under a $297,000 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services, ——

Great. Now I feel so much better.


19 posted on 11/15/2013 11:34:24 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: Kaslin

If, for whatever reason, I am likely to have lower medical costs, why should I have to pay more for medical insurance? Should I not be able to contract with an insurance company to prove a product that makes sense for me?

Did we lose a war or something?


20 posted on 11/15/2013 11:37:08 AM PST by Haiku Guy (Health Care Haiku: If You Have a Right / To the Labor I Provide / I Must Be Your Slave)
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