Tape recording reveals health subsidy 'gotcha moment' for health law architect

Tape-recorded comments made by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber in 2012 are being used by backers of the latest legal challenge to the health law to support the argument that the overhaul's subsidies were not intended to be used by consumers shopping for coverage on the federal exchange. 

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Health Law Architect's Taped Remarks Fuel Subsidy Debate
Backers of the latest legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act are seizing on comments made in 2012 by an MIT economist, often referred to as the law's architect, to support their argument that only people who buy health coverage through a state exchange – not exchanges run by the federal government – can get tax credits towards the cost of premiums (Radnofsky and Kendall, 7/25).

Politico: An Obamacare Gotcha Moment
One of Obamacare's chief architects, MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, just handed conservatives a gotcha moment. Health law opponents and conservative academics are highlighting a two-year-old video of Gruber -; who has advised both the Obama administration and then-Gov. Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health reform effort -; in which he seems to agree that the law's health insurance subsidies can't be awarded through federal-run exchanges, only through the state-run markets (Winfield Cunningham, 7/25).

The Boston Globe: Health Care Law Debate Heats Up
Jonathan Gruber, a major architect of the Affordable Care Act, twice made comments in 2012 that seem to support legal arguments advanced by opponents who are challenging the federal health insurance law in court. The remarks were captured in two separate recordings, one video and one audio, which bounced around social media Friday after surfacing on conservative websites. But Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor, said Friday that it was all a mistake (Freyer, 7/25).