At a campaign rally in Flint, Michigan yesterday, former President Bill Clinton tore into Obamacare, calling it the “craziest thing in the world.” While slamming Obama’s signature domestic achievement, Clinton said that the simplest way to fix our health care system and offer affordable insurance without the double-digit premium hikes is to find a rate where people can buy into Medicare and Medicaid. It may have garnered some applause, but Hillary wants to maintain Obamacare, while adding adjustments of her own (via The Hill):
Former President Bill Clinton steamrolled President Obama’s signature healthcare law as “the craziest thing in the world.”At a rally on Monday in Flint, Michigan, Clinton blasted the core principles of ObamaCare as unworkable as he pitched a new system that would allow people to buy into Medicare or Medicaid.
“You’ve got this crazy system where all the 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,” Clinton said.
“It’s the craziest thing in the world,” he said.
Clinton’s remarks while campaigning for his wife, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, run in direct contrast to her previous promises to build on ObamaCare.
This isn’t the first time Bill has ventured off the reservation. Hillary was diagnosed with pneumonia last month, though Bill said she had the flu; that was incorrect. In March, the former president seemingly took a swipe at Obama directly, calling his legacy over the past eight years “awful.” An aide then told USA Today that Bill was referring to Republican obstructionism in Congress, though the passage suggests otherwise.
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On Obamacare, Hillary has had her trip ups as well. In May, she failed miserably to explain to a small business owner why her health care costs rose $500. At a campaign event in Iowa City back in December of 2015, Hillary admitted that Obamacare was hurting workers, turning us into a nation of part-timers.
Guy has a post about how The New York Times is even admitting that Obamacare is in dire straits and may…need more government to save it. There’s discussions within the Obama administration to use a fund within the Treasury Department to illegally bailout some of the Obamacare insurers. The temporary fund was meant to serve as a carrot for insurers to participate in the exchanges; providing some financial assurance that a cash injection was readily available should they suffer massive losses (risk corridors). Insurers are now suing the government over the provision, though the Obama administration seems to be shying away from the whole bailout idea, according to John Sexton over at Hot Air.
Oh, before I forget, Bill sort of mentioned this buying into Medicare and Medicaid plan on the stump back in May, where he said Obamacare “has a lot of problems,” and that there should be a public option for people over 55 to buy into these government health programs. I’m not so sure Congress will agree, even if Hillary does win. The GOP will maintain the House and there could be a 50-50 split in the Senate, not the best composition to put forward a proposal that was nixed in the original Obamacare push back in 2010 because of Democratic fears that there was not enough votes to pass it. And that was with a Democratic Congress.
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