October 4, 2016 | No Comments
FARMVILLE, Va. — Hillary Clinton’s campaign sought to play down former President Bill Clinton’s criticisms of Obamacare, arguing he was merely explaining that there is more work to be done to improve the law.
At an event in Michigan on Monday night, Bill Clinton said that too many middle-class people are still unable to gain access to affordable healthcare, calling the current situation the “craziest thing in the world.” But Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton’s communication director, said Bill Clinton’s complaints are rooted in the inability of Washington to continue building on the law.
“President Clinton said as, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine believe, there’s so much good the Affordable Care Act has done in terms of making insurance available to 25 million people,” Palmieri told reporters in the spin room here ahead of the lone vice presidential debate. “There’s still a lot of work to do … that’s what President Clinton’s referring to. And while we’ve there’s a lot of good the legislation has done, there’s more work to be done to fix it to make it better for people.”
Bill Clinton was a bit harsher in his critique on Monday night, maintaining that individuals and small businesses don’t have bargaining power to get better rates from insurance companies and that they are “getting killed on this deal.”
“The people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world,” Bill Clinton said on Monday.
Palmieri then pivoted to contrast Hillary Clinton as someone who’s working to make more affordable healthcare options available to consumers while the GOP ticket as one looking to gut the law completely. Donald Trump’s campaign seized on Bill Clinton’s remarks as evidence Obamacare “doesn’t work.”