Health insurance exchange’s fiscal solvency relies on Gruber numbers
By: Republican Leader David Hann as published in the Star Tribune
The hot political story out of Washington DC this week is the saga of a professor from MIT named Jonathan Gruber. Gruber is credited with being the architect of Obamacare and has gotten himself in trouble recently by saying things out loud President Obama might have preferred he keep to himself.
Speaking about efforts to pitch Obamacare to a skeptical Congress, he said: “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the ‘stupidity of the American voter’ or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.’”
So Gruber admits to not being transparent – in other words, hiding the truth, in order to pass Obamacare. It is understandable how members of Congress would feel betrayed after relying on Gruber’s expertise to pass the most significant change to healthcare in our nation’s history.
But it doesn’t end there.
Here in Minnesota, Governor Dayton also relied on Professor Gruber for important data to pass our healthcare exchange known as MNsure. In fact, the fiscal note accompanying the legislation relied exclusively on enrollment projections from a report written by Gruber. That report, by the way, cost taxpayers $570,000.
Just as President Obama had a tough time selling this healthcare takeover in Washington, Gov. Mark Dayton faced an uphill battle here in Minnesota to pass his version of the healthcare exchange. We were told many wonderful things would come to pass if we supported Dayton’s plan:
The exchange would serve 1.3 million people by 2016.
Over 600,000 people would be purchasing individual plans (as opposed to taxpayer-subsidized plans).
Overall premium costs for individual plans would fall by 34%.
Household budgets would improve by $500-700.
The number of uninsured would decrease by 60% by 2016.
There would be a large rise in non-employer insurance coverage, and little change in employer-provided coverage.
“This will deliver a big benefit to households in this state and create a lot more winners than losers,” Gruber told the Pioneer Press in November 2011.
These rosy projections from the now-discredited Gruber were the basis of Governor Dayton’s MNsure legislation, and helped build support from the public to pass the bill. Unfortunately, none of these projections have come to pass. For example, instead of attracting 600,000 private market enrollees, only 55,000 have signed up. And premiums are climbing by 20% this year alone, according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. If these trends continue, MNsure will fail, leading to higher healthcare costs and fewer choices for Minnesotans.
Republicans tried to warn Governor Dayton and the DFL majorities about their unsubstantiated claims. We said free market solutions for healthcare would be the only way to lower costs and create more choice for consumers. MNsure was yet another example of the Dayton administration using phony numbers and projections to win a short-term political debate (remember the false promise of lower property taxes?). Unfortunately, our voices were cut out of the healthcare conversation, and ultimately, Republicans didn’t vote for Obamacare at the federal level or MNsure at the state level.
Now that Minnesota’s healthcare needs fixing, it’s time for every well-intentioned voice to be heard and every idea to be considered. Let’s reject the political agendas, take a hard look at the facts, admit to mistakes, and adopt free market solutions that benefit all Minnesotans.
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