Gingrich says Obama passed up IBM’s offer to find health-care savings
In a recent Texas debate, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the CEO of IBM had told President Barack Obama how to save billions of dollars in health-care fraud.
In a 2010 interview, IBM’s CEO said: “We could have improved quality and reduced the costs of the health-care system by $900 billion. … I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. They turned us down.”
Did this actually happen? To our inquiries, the White House did not confirm or deny the CEO’s claim. Read on!
Our Sources
C-SPAN video, "Herman Cain-Newt Gingrich Lincoln-Douglas Style Debate," Nov. 5, 2011
MSNBC.com news story, "Obama: $900 billion to fix health care," by M. Alex Johnson, Sept. 9, 2009
National Public Radio news story, "Gingrich's Health Care Consultancy: Is It Lobbying?," by Peter Overby, Dec. 5, 2011
Center for Health Transformation press release, "Gingrich Group LLC / Center for Health Transformation Statement in Response to Recent Press Inquiries," Nov. 21, 2011
BusinessWeek news story, "Newt Gingrich’s Health-Care Mission," by Keith Epstein, April 23, 2009
Fox News television episode, "Your World with Neil Cavuto," segment titled "IBM CEO: Administration Turned Down Free Offer to Hunt Out Health Care Abuse," guest hosted by Stuart Varney, Oct. 8, 2010
Email interviews with Joe De Santis, campaign communications director for Newt 2012, Nov. 14-Dec. 7, 2011
Wall Street Journal interview of IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, "ViewPoints: Working With the Obama White House," by Alan Murray, Sept. 14, 2010
Phone and email interview with Alan Murray, deputy managing editor and executive editor-online for The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 8, 2011
Email and phone interviews, Brandon Lepow, White House regional communications director, Nov. 29-Dec. 5
