Bill Clinton Says He 'Strongly' Supports Obamacare but it Needs Fix

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/NBC News

Former President Bill Clinton continued to try and clarify his comments on the Affordable Care Act earlier this week on Wednesday, but told reporters his wife had no issue with him framing the law as creating a "crazy system."

"Look, I supported it strongly from the get-go, but I knew at some point people that were just above the subsidy line were gonna get in trouble, because they don't have enough market power," he told reporters at a campaign stop in Youngstown, Ohio during his second day of campaigning for Hillary Clinton throughout the state.

Clinton created fodder for Republican attacks on Monday when he criticized the law for leaving out small business owners and workers who make too much to qualify for government subsidies for healthcare. At a rally in Flint, Mich., he said that, with the current law, "you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have healthcare and then the people are out there busting it sometimes 60 hours a week wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half."

* * *
"She knows, and he [Obama] knows, I've talked to him about it, about how frustrating it is that the people that are just a little above the subsidy line and just a little above the Medicaid eligibility line are having insurance markets that are not working as well as everybody hoped they would," he said. But he went on to argue that the law had been crippled by the "adversaries of healthcare," those who opposed including a public option in the original bill and who "voted 57 times to repeal it."

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bill-clinton-says-he-strongly-supports-obamacare-but-it-needs-fix/ar-BBx2G6u

[groundloop]

1. Bill is correct, too bad he hadn't crafted his words more carefully

It's too bad Bill Clinton's words are providing fodder for repubs.

The fact is that the Affordable Care Act is flawed, yet it's a huge improvement over what we had before. I hope and pray that we can, at some point, get control of both houses and finally get Medicare for All passed.

[kacekwl]

7. When 1st enacted it was a relief

but soon turned into a cluster of little to no choices, huge deductibles , constantly rising premiums to the point even with subsidies is unaffordable. It shows than the insurance industry still has too much control and has made it unworkable. I hope she shares her husband's view and pushes single payer hard and soon.

[kerouac2]

17. Smart people have the ability to critique things...

that's how we make them better.

Unfortunately, any critique of the ACA, now matter how reasoned, is pounced upon.

[Bradical79]

28. Pretty much

From what I read, he wasn't wrong, but it's not particularly useful critique for a wider audience during the last months of an election. One of his biggest strengths, his love of having conversations about policy and politics to anyone who will listen, can occasionaly backfire when the time or audience isn't appropriate :-P Unfortunately, getting President Clinton to just temporarily keep his mouth shut on certain subjects seems to be easier said than done, lol.

[Akicita]

3. How was the law crippled by those who voted 57 times to repeal it?

They were never successful in repealing any of it.

[Akicita]

22. I'm just confused. Bill Clinton says the ACA is crippled and it was crippledc by the lack of a

single payer component and by rethugs trying to repeal it. If Democrats wanted a single payer component they would have put it in the original bill because we had a super majority in the Senate and a majority in the House so we could put anything in the bill we wanted. We didn't need any and got no support from the rethugs to pass the bill. They had no power to force changes in the bill before it was passed and have not had the power to repeal it even though they had all their feeble repeal votes to try to assuage their base.

So how in the world and in what way have the Rethuglicans crippled the ACA as Bill Clinton states. I have been watching and thought we had done a good job of fending off any Rethug attacks on the ACA. Now I hear that they have somehow successfully crippled the ACA and I want to know what they did to cripple it and how Democrats in Congress and President Obama let it happen. It seems to have been done under the radar because I have not heard of any big rethug victories against the ACA in the media. Clinton's statement, which seems to be widely accepted, is the first I have heard that they have somehow successfully crippled the bill and I am not happy about it.

[Kathy M]

24. Read post # 13 in this thread Single payer would not have bee approved by a senator back when it

was being voted on .

I am hoping we will hear more about what would like to be done .

My guess is Repubs working from the outside to cripple in . Hope to hear more myself .

Nov . we need to have all 3 branches ..............

Husband and myself have looked into ACA a few times .... have stayed with a health savings ..... year to two that will have to change .

[Akicita]

25. I read post #13. Thanks. Still don't see how the repugs were able to cripple the bill as Clinton

just stated. Post #13 talks about a lot of infighting among Democrats along with the turncoat Lieberman. We had a supermajority. Repugs had no say. Still want to know how they managed to cripple the bill?

[DonCoquixote]

4. The ugly truth is

Bill is probably mad as hell that he is not front and center, like he was in 2008, and that he has always felt free to attack Obama, which is why Hillary is wisely not trotting Big Dawg out (lest he make a mess.)

[kacekwl]

8. Nonsense , in my opinion

everything he said is true. He said it in a clear and easy to grasp way something he is very good at.

[Akicita]

23. If what he says is true than I am pissed. How in the hell did we let the rethugs cripple

the bill. With our super majority we could have put anything we wanted into the ACA and the repugs had no power, none, to stop us. All of their feeble attempts to repeal it since have failed. Now we find out that somehow they were able to cripple it. My question is what did they do and how did we let it happen with a super majority when it passed and a President with a veto pen since. Not happy and confused.

[4lbs]

15. The Big Dawg will be campaigning for her in Ohio and Iowa.

He'll be talking to blue-collar mostly white audiences.

[videohead5]

5. Remember

It was a Republican plan passed by Governor Romney in Massachusetts and pushed by the Heritage foundation.then Obama backed it and when that happened Republicans turned against it.of course it needed a public option.I tell you what they might get Republicans to go for and that's health care co-ops and non-profit insurance companies.

[FrodosPet]

9. It is a trap being at a certain income level

When you make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to pay the premiums. Making $1400 a month as an independent contractor, you have just enough to cover rent, cheap food, and utilities. Add on insurance premiums? And then you STILL have co-pays and deductibles?

I've decided that I am probably not going to see 60. I cannot afford to.

[dembotoz]

11. Asshole moron gov. scum walker won't expand medicaid

so there was a gap where obamacare assumed we would have medicaid but the state said not so much.....
great catch 22

thankfully she got a job with group benefits

[Wolf Frankula]

12. Two and a half Years Ago I was Taking Home about 1400 a month

The Least expensive plan cost 650 a month, with a six thousand deductible. I fell into the gap so I never signed up. Then I went on my employer's plan. Millions fell into the gap.

Why was there no public option? Because Obama in 2010 wouldn't put the screws to DINOs like LIEberman. Because he was still trying to be 'bipartisan' and 'reach across the aisle.'

If Hillary wins, the I hope the only thing she reaches across the aisle with is an ax or a club.

Wolf

[BumRushDaShow]

13. "Obama in 2010 wouldn't put the screws to DINOs like LIEberman"

WTF? What "screws"? Lieberman lost the Democratic primary in CT in 2006 and went on to be elected as an Independent, NOT a Democrat (and he eventually endorsed McCain/Palin in 2008), so he could strut around and do whatever the fuck he wanted. He didn't run for reelection in 2012.

Here is some of the history -

<...>

Following President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, the U.S. Congress began its work on comprehensive health care reform. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pledged at the time that the House bill would include a public option.15 Indeed, a public option offered through a private insurance exchange was included in all three versions of the bill passed by House committees in the summer of 2009 (House Ways and Means and House Education and Labor on 17 July 2009; House Energy and Commerce on 31 July 2009), as well as in the bill passed by the full House of Representatives on 7 November 2009 (the Affordable Health Care for America Act, HR 3962). A public option was also included in the bill passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on 15 July 2009 (the Affordable Health Choices Act, S 1679).

Senate Democrats were engaged in a highly contentious debate throughout the fall of 2009, and the political life of the public option changed almost daily. The debate reached a critical impasse in November 2009, when Sen. Joseph Lieberman ([font color="red"]I-CT[/font]), who usually caucuses with the Democrats, threatened to filibuster the Senate bill if it included a public option.

During this period, several alternatives were considered. One compromise proposal included a Medicare buy-in for people age fifty-five and older. However, both Senator Lieberman and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) opposed the Medicare buy-in, which evoked concerns similar to those raised about the public option. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) proposed using nonprofit health care cooperatives to compete with for-profit plans, but this concept also sparked little enthusiasm.

Debate over the public option continued as additional proposals were made to narrow eligibility for the public option and to raise the rates paid to providers above Medicare levels. When those, too, failed to garner enough support, the public option was eliminated from the Senate bill.

<...>

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/6/1117.full

I spent most of 2009 & 2010 watching both the House and Senate hearings (Health/Finance/Budget/Ways and Means, etc) and the eventual bill debates and reworks.

The myths abound and it's sad about the amnesia on DU.

[kacekwl]

29. Amen !

[roamer65]

10. The fix is Medicare for all.

Model it after Canada's Medicare.

[Nitram]

14. If we get a majority in both houses of congress for Clinton's second term,

I'd bet she'd go for single payer.

[harun]

16. Public option maybe, I doubt she get enough corporate dem's to go along with Single Payer.

[Nitram]

18. OK, I'll settle for that. Medicare for all.

[harun]

21. I certainly would too!

[KittyWampus]

19. Perhaps it's better to admit it needs fixing and be positive about that.

[Wounded Bear]

20. It was crippled by...

Republican govs and state houses that denied MedicAid benefits to their citizens.

As a bill, it has needed numerous tweaks, and now it has become kind of untenable for a lot of people. With a House and Senate capable of doing something other than voting on their own raises, this could have been done.

[LisaM]

26. I can't believe the kerfuffle over his remarks the other day.

It's pretty clear what he meant. Everyone knows that in practice the ACA has been a mixed bag and even its fiercest opponents didn't think it was anything more than a starting point.

[kacekwl]

30. Starting point is over

Time to win the race and not in 8 years.

[RKP5637]

27. Bill Clinton running catch up backtracking. What an extraordinary stupid comment. n/t

[kacekwl]

31. Maybe one of the smartest comments

regarding "obamacare" I've heard. Let's be honest please.

[RKP5637]

32. Right, but was bad timing. n/t