When Jared Kushner’s Company Lobbied Against Repealing Obamacare

Jared Kushner Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman August 9, 2017

While much has been written about the vast array of business interests held by presidential adviser/son-in-law Jared Kushner before he joined the White House, little notice was paid to his stake in a health care provider founded by his brother Joshua Kushner. The company, Oscar Health Insurance, benefited from Obamacare and was active on the individual health care marketplace, according to a Talking Points Memo report.

Jared Kushner’s interest in Oscar Health Insurance was part of his larger involvement in Thrive Capital, which had partial ownership of the company. Upon joining the White House, Kushner disclosed his interests in Thrive but was not required to detail its holdings in Oscar Health Insurance. A White House legal counsel noticed the potential for a conflict of interest and wrote to the Office of Government Ethics, warning that if Kushner held on to the company, he would have to recuse himself from dealing with health care reform.

Kushner divested from the company shortly after. But the TPM report reveals that two weeks before he announced his plan to divest from Thrive, Oscar Health Insurance hired lobbyists to advocate against repealing Obamacare. Kushner, according to the report, was not involved in the decision to lobby against the repeal.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter, @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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