Thursday, September 5, 2013

Bill Clinton Finally Makes The Case For Obamacare

With just weeks to go before exchanges open for enrollment on October 1, former President Bill Clinton joined the White House push as "Explainer-In-Chief" this week to help make President Obama's case to the American people to enroll in Obamacare.

"We've got to do this," Clinton said in a speech to several hundred health care professionals and doctors in Little Rock, Ark. "The studies show that we are No. 1 by a country mile in the percentage of our income that we devote to health care costs, and rank no better than 25th to 33rd in the health care outcomes we get. This is the country that pioneered innovation in every other area of our national life; you cannot make me believe that we have to tolerate this from now until the end of eternity."

At a crucial juncture a few weeks before the Oct. 1 opening of the law's health insurance marketplaces across the country, Clinton scolded Republicans who have voted to repeal the law more than 40 times, arguing that they have not offered "real alternatives."

"The benefits of reform can't be fully realized, and the problems certainly can't be solved unless both the supporters and the opponents of the original legislation work together to implement it and address the issues that arise whenever you change a system this complex," he said during Wednesday's address at the Clinton Presidential Library.

He made a good case, although such a full-throated defense of Obamacare should have been made in 2010 and 2011, Bill.  Joining the fight this late in the game is better than nothing, I suppose, but with the problem being communication and a confused public, we could have used you years ago.

The administration has a difficult task ahead in selling the public on the new law given its unpopularity and confusion about its effect. In a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, four in 10 people believed the law had been repealed or overturned - or were unsure about whether it remained in place. About 50 percent of those who responded said they didn't know how it would affect their families.

Considering the amount of lies the GOP has spread about Obamacare and the tens of millions spent on those lies by conservative groups, I'm not surprised at all.  That was the Republican plan all along: to kill Obamacare enrollment through confusion and indifference.

Glad you can lend a hand, Bill.  After four years of sitting on your ass, finally jumping in with a month to go is a great way to show your support for President Obama, right?

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/04/201195/bill-clinton-offers-case-for-obamacare.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/04/201195/bill-clinton-offers-case-for-obamacare.html#storylink=cpy

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