Republicans rejoiced when they thought Bill Clinton had called President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law “the craziest thing in the world.”
Clinton shot down their giddiness on Wednesday, insisting that, “I strongly supported that bill.” As The Huffington Post’s Jeff Young points out, it’s clear that he had been referring to some of the legislation’s shortcomings, not the law in its entirety.
One of the problems with Obamacare, Clinton had said Monday, is the gap in coverage between people who qualify for Medicaid or Medicare and those who don’t but cannot afford some of the higher premiums required. That gap exists in part because states can choose whether or not to expand Medicare for their residents ― and many Republican governors and lawmakers have not.
The former president said on Wednesday that his wife, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, is aiming to close that gap.
“There are problems with [Obamacare],” he said. “Republicans want to repeal the law, their idea of solving the problem is to take 20 million who got insurance and take it away from them... Hillary’s idea is recognize what the problem is.”
Some of the ways she is promising to improve on the existing law are making prescription drugs cheaper, allowing people over 55 to purchase Medicare, and pushing more states to expand Medicaid.
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