Fox Business host gets into heated exchange with ObamaCare architect
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo got into a heated argument with MIT professor Jonathan Gruber on Tuesday over the affordability of ObamaCare.
Bartiromo cited last month’s announcement that premiums for the most popular level of health insurance would increase by an average of 25 percent in 2017.
The host argued that businesses are not hiring more employees because they cannot afford health assurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Gruber, known as an architect of President Obama’s signature healthcare law, argued in the interview that premiums for most viewers will not increase.
“Employer insurance, which is what most of your listeners have, 150 million people, no insurers are leaving. Premiums are growing at historically slow rates,” Gruber said.
He argued that premiums would increase on the individual exchanges, affecting about 7 million Americans.
“There you’re right. Insurers have left. Premiums are up,” he said.
Bartiromo pushed back, citing CEOs and business owners she had hosted on her show who said they cannot hire more employees due to the cost of healthcare.
“I don’t need data when I have the CEO telling me, ‘I’m not adding workers because of the cost of ObamaCare,'” she said. “That is my data. I just spoke to the boss and he gave me the reason.”
Gruber again cited the premium costs for employer health insurance versus the individual exchanges.
“Over the last 5 years since ObamaCare passed, the premium growth of employer insurance has been the slowest in measured history. That is a fact,” he said.
Bartiromo then showed the viral clip of Gruber saying that “the stupidity of the American voter” helped ObamaCare pass in Congress.
“It’s very hard to believe you after what you said when this law first came out, that Americans are stupid and that you needed a stupid public to get it through,” she said.
Gruber said he regretted those comments and cited data from the Kaiser Family Foundation on healthcare. Bartiromo again referenced her own reporting on the economic impact of Obamacare.
“That’s why we want to have people who are actually getting affected by the law, not someone in their ivory tower telling us what this should be,” she said.
“But in fact what people are seeing on the ground, because they’re the ones that are being affected by the law. That’s why that’s fact, talking to CEOs and talking to the managers of businesses, Jonathan,” she added.
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