Gingrich think tank collected millions from health-care industry
An issue on campaign trail
A financial disclosure form filed by the candidate in July said his net worth was at least $6.7 million, with income of at least $2.7 million in 2010. The form listed a “convertible promissory note” — a kind of loan that can be paid back or converted into stock — worth $5 million to $25 million from Gingrich Group to Gingrich Productions, a media company run by his wife, Callista.
Gingrich has clashed with other Republican presidential candidates over his evolving positions on health-care issues. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, whose own state health-care reform plan was a model for Obama’s national approach, attacked Gingrich at one debate: “We got the idea of an individual mandate from you!”
The Gingrich health center’s support for such a mandate was part of an “Insure All Americans” plan that appears to have disappeared from the center’s Web site Thursday.
Gingrich has characterized his previous support for insurance mandates as a response to President Bill Clinton’s more government-focused health-care proposal in the 1990s, and he has said he turned against the idea.
“I am completely opposed to the Obamacare mandate on individuals,” he says in a recent campaign video. “I fought it for 21 / 2 years at the Center for Health Transformation.”
During a recent interview in South Carolina, Gingrich said that ending his involvement in the health-care think tank and other businesses was difficult. He also said that if he fails to win the Republican nomination, he doesn’t know whether he will “do anything as big as the center” again.
“You know, I’ve made a good deal of my income off the speeches and off of being a commentator,” Gingrich said. “All of that went away. So it just got to be much more challenging.”
Staff writer Karen Tumulty contributed to this report.
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