The White House is defending President Obama’s signature healthcare initiative despite President Bill Clinton recently describing the rise in premiums and cuts in coverage that some face as the “craziest thing in the world.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “of course” the White House wishes Clinton would have chosen different words to describe Obamacare.
“It’s not exactly clear to me what argument he was making, and so I’ll let him and his team explain that,” Earnest said in today’s briefing.
Earnest added the president remains “proud” of the Affordable Care Act.
“The president’s quite proud of the accomplishment of the Affordable Care Act. The American people benefit from the way the law has been implemented in terms of expanding coverage; in terms of limiting the growth in health care costs; but also in terms of the many consumer protections that people who already had health insurance in the past now benefit from,” Earnest said.
“President Obama has of course acknowledged that with cooperation from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, there are some things that could be done to further strengthen the law,” he added. “That’s something that Secretary Clinton has vowed to pursue if she is elected president of the United States, and President Obama is certainly going to do everything he can to support that effort.”
At a campaign rally in Flint, Mich. Monday, the former president discussed how the premiums have risen under the Affordable Care Act.
“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,” Clinton said Monday. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”