Bill Clinton is not backing down from his claim that the Affordable Care Act has some major problems, though he has been more careful to stress his support for the major health care law.
“There is a big problem with it that needs to be fixed,” the former president said Tuesday at a campaign event in Steubenville, Ohio.
He was also careful to say, “I support the Affordable Care Act. I support it today.”
“They did a great job in insuring 25 million more people, and it did something for 100 percent of the people. It said you could not deny anybody health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. All of that is really important,” Clinton said.
Nevertheless, the former president added, there are some deficiencies in the law that need to be addressed, especially the skyrocketing cost of premiums.
This wasn’t the first time Tuesday that Clinton sought earlier to clarify his position on the healthcare law.
“Look, the Affordable Health Care Act did a world of good, and the 50-something efforts to repeal it that the Republicans have … were a terrible mistake,” Clinton said at a separate campaign rally in Athens, Ohio.
“We for the first time in our history at least are providing insurance to more than 90 percent of our people,” he said.
Clinton’s comments explaining his thoughts on the Affordable Care Act come after he stirred controversy Monday by saying that the law is the “the craziest thing in the world.”
“The people who are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. Why? Because they’re not organized and they don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies and they’re getting whacked,” Clinton said.
“So you 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,” Clinton added. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”
The simplest solution, Clinton said, would be to figure out an affordable rate and let people use that, and to let people who are “above the line” have access to “affordable entry into the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
