Donald Trump Made ObamaCare 'Impossible' for Insurers: ACA Architect Jonathan Gruber
Jonathan Gruber, a well-known architect of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, pushed back against claims ObamaCare has failed.
“First of all Obamacare is not imploding and unraveling,” Gruber told the FOX Business Network. “Obamacare last year a had a one-time price increase which stabilized the markets, insurer profits were trending positive and nowhere in the country was left without an insurer."
Gruber, an MIT professor who was recently caught on tape saying “the stupidity of the American voter led us to hide ObamaCare’s true costs from the public,” blames President Trump for ObamaCare's rising costs.
“Since President Trump has been elected, multiple insurance executives have said that the uncertainty he’s injected into the market has made it impossible for them to stay in the exchanges, and caused them to raise prices,” he said.
Gruber said even though the government bailed out insurers who walked away after losing money, that was also not a failure of the law.
“That’s absolutely wrong,” Gruber said. “Obamacare had an… insurer re-insurance feature but actually it was never paid out-- Republicans blocked it despite the fact the AHCA has an even bigger payment of the exact same type.”
Currently, there are some counties and towns with just one insurer, but in Gruber’s opinion, it’s how the free market works and pointed out how the law wasn’t given a chance to work.
“You’re supposed to like the fact that in any free market there’s entry and exit until the market stabilizes—the market was not yet stabile,” he said, and added that the new Republican law “only makes it worse.”