White House press secretary Jay Carney responded Tuesday to former President Bill Clinton's assertion that the Obama administration should “honor the commitment” to ensure no one loses their current health insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act.
AP
“The president has tasked his team with looking at a range of options, as he said, to make sure nobody is put in a position where their plans have been cancelled and can't afford a better plan even though they'd like to have a better plan,” Carney told reporters during the White House press briefing.
Clinton said in an interview published Tuesday, "I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.”
Obama pledged on 36 occasions – 26 times before he signed the law – that no one would lose their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. That's turned out not to be the case as news reports have shown that millions of people have lost or are expected to lose their existing insurance plans as a result of Obamacare regulations.
“You heard the president address this very issue in his interview last week,” Carney said, referring to the NBC News interview where Obama gave a partial apology for those being dropped. “I think it's important to note that President Clinton in that interview also said, and I quote, the big lesson is that we are better off with this law than without it.”
Carney also sought to minimize the problem, saying those who bought their plans on the individual market and are losing it will likely qualify for a better plan. He said it was only a small percentage who would lose their insurance.
“For the universe of people, that smaller group of people within that 5 percent, the fact that they got a cancellation notice because of the fact that they purchased a plan within the last couple of years that (did) not meet minimum standards and they are facing challenges in terms of affordability, the president has asked his team to look at ways to address that problem,” Carney said.
Pressed later if this meant the president is open to changing the law, Carney stated opposition to a House Republican-backed measure, but was unclear about a Senate proposal that has Democratic support.
Carney did say the administration opposed House legislation allowing anyone to keep their current health care plan, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“The Upton bill allows insurers to sell 2013 plans in 2014 to anyone. It does not just continue 2013 plans in 2014 for those enrolled in them,” Carney said. “The problem I just described would create a problem for insurers that are selling plans that meet the basic standards and allows insurers to sell those 2013 plans that either charge you double or put caps on benefits or do any number of things that make those plans insufficient when it comes to basic coverage, and sell them to any takers. And obviously if the coverage is substandard they would obviously be able to undersell those plans and undermine the basic premise of the Affordable Care Act.”
Carney said he did not have all the information on a similar Senate bill, with Democratic support, sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
“Broadly speaking that would apply to the Upton legislation. Broadly speaking, we do not see that as fixing the problem. We see that as throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Carney said.
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