MIT economist Jonathan Gruber , was a White House consultant during the design and passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Last night,
a video surfaced showing Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber saying in January 2012 that if states do not set up their own exchanges under Obamacare, they lose access to the law.
The clip was important because Gruber is an influential health policy analyst who helped author parts of Obamacare and consulted with multiple states on the implementation of health insurance exchanges under the law.
The statement he made in the video, that "if you're a state and you don’t set up an exchange, that means your citizens don't get their tax credits, aligned closely with the plain language of the law, which plainly states that subsidies are only available state-established exchanges, as well as the argument made by legal challengers who have argued in court that the Obama administration’s implementation of the law—which allowed subsidies in federally run exchanges via an Internal Revenue Service rule—is illegal.