GRUBER: Explains How “Mislabeling” Helped Pass the Affordable Health Care Act.
In those 2011 remarks, Gruber said that, despite the fact that most members of his profession agree employer-based health insurance tax breaks were bad policy, “it turns out politically it’s really hard to get rid of.”
He said that the Affordable Care Act helped to do away with this system in two ways. The first, “by mislabeling it, calling it a tax on insurance plans rather than a tax on people when we all know it’s a tax on people who hold those insurance plans.” And secondly, by delaying the implementation of this tax until 2018. “But by starting it late, we were able to tie the cap for Cadillac Tax to CPI, not medical inflation,” Gruber said.
“This was the only political way we were ever going to take on what is one of the worst public policies in America, and every economist should celebrate this,” Gruber insisted.
“It’s on the books now,” Gruber added of the 2018 implementation deadline at which point he anticipated employers and unions would seek to have this tax repealed. “At that point, if they want to get rid of it they’re going to have to fill a trillion dollar hole in the deficit.” Source
The sixth video has now surfaced of Jonathan Gruber, the MIT Professor who has made the news with his explanations of how the drafters of the Affordable Healthcare Act, not ONLY relied on the “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity” of the American voters, is now admitting to using “mislabeling” as a key strategy used to pass this legislation. The bottom line, they (Congress) knew and understood perfectly, if the American people had full disclosure and transparency, the Affordable Healthcare Act would have never passed.
Source The relevant remarks begin at the 30:38 mark:
