Former President Bill Clinton thinks President Obama should honor his healthcare promise: “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it. Period.”
For the first time since the controversial Healthcare.gov site went live on October 1 and after the much publicized reminders of Obama’s promised that people would be able to keep their plan if they like it, Clinton is chiming in.
“I personally believe, even if it takes a change in the law the president should honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Clinton said in an interview with OZY Media founder Carlos Watson, published on Tuesday.
From the time Obama was campaigning for his first presidential run in 2008, video footage shows him making his now infamous promise: “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it. Period,” which he has repeated throughout his two terms.
As the disastrous roll out of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare has happened, or not happened, the first numbers are finally coming to light, and they are not good for the White House and Obama’s signature legislation.
Last week the President, in an effort to distance himself from his original promise, which is recorded for posterity, told a crowd of supporters at a rally to promote the legislation:
“Now, if you had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.”
Many are accusing the President of lying or at the very least misleading the American people, while others in the Republican party are asking the law be delayed for a year or repealed.
Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius has testified before lawmakers twice and is expected to return, trying to explain why the healthcare.gov site has been plagued by so many glitches, making it virtually impossible for users to access the site.
The first numbers available, according to estimations from The Wall Street Journal suggest less than 50,000 people have enrolled in the Affordable Care Act thus far. It was originally estimated that 39,000 daily enrollments were needed to achieve the 7 million users needed to make the plan work.
Additionally, according to Mcclatchydc.com the number of people losing their insurance coverage, which Obama says amounts only to five percent of the population, could be between 32 million and 52 million.
In an interview with NBC News Obama further tried to explain the fallout from the rollout of his main piece of legislation saying:
“Even though it’s a small percentage of folks who may be disadvantaged, you know, it means a lot to them,” Obama said “And it’s scary to them. And I am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me.”
It remains to be seen what will the effects of Bill Clinton’s words be in the continuing healthcare debacle.