A new video featuring Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, uncovered by White House Dossier today, shows Gruber concurring that some states refusing to expand Medicaid as part of Obamacare do so out of racist motives and asserting that the refusal is “almost awesome in its evilness” and an effort to “punish poor people.”
About half the states have refused to accept federal dollars to expand their Medicaid programs as part of the new insurance coverage provided under the Affordable Care Act. States say they have done so not to hurt poor people – or minorities, for that matter – but because they view Medicaid as a failed program and fear that the increasing costs of the expansion to be born by the states are unaffordable.
Many probably also think Obamacare harms their populations and don’t want to take actions that would support it.
Gruber, in an April 2014 conversation with Harold Pollack of the University of Chicago for the website healthinsurance.org, concurs with Pollack’s contention that some states are denying Medicaid expansion out of racist motives and describes this as an evil effort to punish the poor.
From the conversation:
POLLACK: One of the things that’s really striking to me is, there’s is a politics of impunity towards poor people, particularly non-white poor people that – it’s almost a feature rather than a bug in the internal politics in some of these states, not to cover people under Medicaid even if it’s financially very advantageous to do so.
I think there’s a really important principle to defeat this politically, not just because Medicaid is important for people, but because it’s such a toxic political perspective. It has to be shown that that approach to politics doesn’t work, because otherwise we will really be stuck with some very unjust policies that will be pursued with complete impunity in some of these places.
GRUBER: You know, that’s a great way to put it: There’s larger principles at stake here, when these states are not just turning down covering the poor people, but turning down the federal stimulus that would come with that.
They’re not just not interested in covering poor people, they’re willing to sacrifice billions of dollars in injections into their economy in order to punish poor people. I mean, it really is just almost awesome in its evilness. And I agree, you have to recognize there’s larger principles at stake here.
40 thoughts on “Gruber: States Refusing to Expand Medicaid “Awesome” in their “Evilness””
We WERE covering poor people before Ocare, none were turned away from ERs. Well except at Michelle’s in Chicago ;)
Geesh, I even got seen with an expired (d’oh me) dependent’s i.d. card which nullified my military ins. I said I would pay cash at the doc-in-a-box. I was seen (ear infection) and paid $35 including med for a 10 minute visit. My receipt was stamped UNINSURED with a total bill of over $300. The balance was billed to the state. See how easy that is ?
Sure the emergency room costs were passed on to us with insurance, but I think it was a less expensive way to go. And the hospitals might have been required to supply some accountability. With the government, no way! We be grubered.
Plus people were not being charged for things that were impossible for them to need, like birth control for a 90 year old.
If that doc was not a member of a state plan, the state would dismiss the charge. If it was services to an illegal alien, & they were not covered by Medicaid ( which many are ) the bill goes to the federal govt.
I saw this on a burn victim-he was blown up in his mexican meth lab. Came to the border, called 911 & was cared for in a burn unit for 1.4 million. Hospital Bill only. The state sent the bill to the Feds. I quit before I came to know any outcome of this.
Sure wasn’t that way for my kid with her paralyzed arm. She works min wage and missed Medicaid by $26 a yr and now they would like a few thousand for her desperate trip to the ER. She waited months for her arm to work and it didn’t. After the ER run, we waited more for a test they recommended (I paid $150 for an ortho consult), but then her arm let loose and worked.
Sadly legal Arizona residents are treated as second class citizens. I’ve seen illegal residents get superior medical care…
Your daughter can hopefully construct a discount on her ER care. Most hospitals do work with patient payments & can write off a portion.
I keep telling her to call The Reeg–our ironical term for Chandler Regional Hosp–and fall on their mercy. She has not yet that I know of. She has to work this out for herself. Due to HIPAA they would not talk to me anyhow.
Gruber himself is the epitome of “awesome in its evilness”.
More than qualified as an advisor.
I liked what Mr T said the other day–he is in karma’s waiting room. What goes around comes around.
I am on Medicare for disability and I went to the healthcare.gov site just to see if I could purchase something supplemental to Medicare. The cheapest plan was nearly one-third my monthly income. Oh, well.
At first I thought this was satire.
Close enough. It’s truly sadtire.
Test. My last 2 comments didn’t get on.
The mod doors are open today, relax, it’s clean & fully stocked!
I am so sick of this guy I could spew. So all poor people are black, on and on…we’re all racists….we’re too stupid to know the feds only pay Medicaid expansion for a short time then the states get it in the neck…
Don’t worry Star,…..Obama doesn’t know him nor has never heard of him.
That’s all that matters.
He read about in the newspaper just like all of us poor slobs and is just mad as hell.
Obama’s now disavowing himself of any relationship with Jonathan Gruber. I see a pattern here, although it’s not like Obama sat on the boards of any foundations with Gruber, or sat in the pews of his church for 20 years or anything.
But he did cite him by name as a valued adviser and so did Nan. Ooops–they went to the videotape.
Maine Governor LePage refused this State Exchange Medicaid “gift”. He carefully explained to people that the Feds would drop out of the game and citizens of the State would soon (in 3-4 years, as I remember) have to pick up the tab. And that tab would be in the $millions. Every year.
The firestorm the liberal politicians and newspapers created over his refusal lit up the skies. They called him every name in the book, for months (and still are). He held to his decision. He is right, and they are wrong.
Yes, that’s exactly how it works. Unfortunately, Chris Christie decided to stick it to NJ and they taxpayers will be left holding the bag long after he’s gone.
The totalitarians can’t fathom why anyone rejects the expansion of the federal government’s control over them. The unconstitutional program known as Medicaid, with its federal government strings, regulations, and rules, ever-expanding reach into more lives increasing their dependency on government, is a cornerstone of their ideology and so cannot ever be attacked or rejected.
Is there a picture of where Jonathan Goober lives? My guess it is a mansion located in a gated or exclusively white neighborhood. That’s where all these commie liberals who run around screeching “racist” about everyone who does not buy into their communist redistribution and brutal totalitarian schemes live.
I agree–this loudmouth could not find a clinic with GPS, a compass, and a diviinng rod.
Has this gruber issue been added to THE LIST yet? Has anyone written a book yet titled THE LIST? If not there needs to be a very serious one written first. As we are in tears reading what has happened to our Country, and the downward road our Country is on, A comical book called THE LIST need to be written as well.
You can’t make this Gruber crud up! o is getting past silly as well, with his, I didn’t know, I just read it, someone just told me.
Has any other person in his postion ever used those excuses more than one time?
Pingback: The Gruber Tapes 1 – 7 | Nice Deb
Has this gruber issue been added to THE LIST yet?
Pingback: Must Know Headlines — ExposeTheMedia.com
Pingback: Gruber: Opposition To Obamacare “Awesome In Its Evilness”… | Weasel Zippers
Talk about evil. This Gruber guy is awful in his evilness. Who is he to lie and say that its all about race because the states won’t take the money from the government to expand a terrible idea like Medicaid which spawns so much fraud and offers lousy medical service. I love these rich people that go around talking about race, thats evil. This guy maybe smart in what he does but he sounds like he has no common sense, just has a lot of anger for the country like Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood in the White House.
Curious–what would you suggest in place of Medicaid?
Pingback: Gruber: ‘States against Medicaid expansion “Awesome” in their “Evilness” | BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades!
A healthcare program run by a government that has “misplaced” over $600 billion and can’t seem to find it? Obamacare was run though on the premise that there were millions of people without medical insurance, today there are even more without insurance and more cancellations coming in 2015, as well as “double digit” increases, estimated at 17% to 20% if you were lucky enough to keep your insurance. Some deductibles are now $5,000 to $10,000 so people who have insurance cannot afford to use it, they don’t have the money for the deductible!
Absolutely true! I was brainstorming with someone pre-Medicare who needs surg–she was trying to figure the deductible and copays and see if a Platinum plan would be better at least for a yr. It is very hard to compare.
Health care is a privilege, not a “right”. Privileges must be EARNED, regardless of your status in life. If you choose to NOT earn it, it’s NOT yours to demand. Veterans earn it by effectvely signing a blank check which may cost their lives, and at the very least will cost them in terms of earnings and time. Seniors earned it by working their whole adult lives, paying into SSA and Medicare. Skin color has nothing to do with the issue; work ethic does.
Pingback: Low Popahirum, November 18, 2014 | The Hayride
Pingback: Exposing ‘Zagruber film’ to light
Pingback: Obama Lies |
Pingback: Exposing ‘Zagruber film’ to light « Insurance « Money Wise
Comments are closed.