Bill Clinton: Health Care Law Should Be Changed To Allow People To Keep Their Plans

Clinton: Feds Should Honor Health Care Pledge

Former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that the health care law should be changed if necessary to allow people to keep their health care plans that have been canceled as a result of the implementation of Obamacare.

"I personally believe, even if it takes changing the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton told OZY TV.

Clinton preceded his comments by saying that the country is better off with the Affordable Care Act. The former president also recounted a story where a man he met had his individual plan canceled because of Obamacare, and his insurer offered a plan with twice the premiums, but his copays and deductibles were much lower.

Despite Clinton's tempering of the criticism directed at the health care rollout, Republicans seized on his comments as an admittance of Obama's failure to fulfill his frequently-stated promised that those who like their health care plan can keep it. The White House has not said either way whether the law should be changed to allow people to keep their individual insurance plans.

Consumers who have their insurance canceled can shop for coverage in state or federal-run exchanges; however, the glitches with the Obamacare website have made that difficult for many. In addition, some insurers have used the Obamacare implementation to try to force people into their own, more expensive plans rather than let them know that they can shop on exchanges.

UPDATE: 2:45 p.m. -- In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, press secretary Jay Carney said that Obama agrees with Clinton, pointing to an interview he gave to NBC News last week.

"The president has tasked his team with looking at a range of options, as he said, to make sure that nobody is put in a position where their plans have been canceled and they can’t afford a better plan, even though they’d like to have a better plan," he said.

Before You Go

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