Another day, another step backward: Bill Clinton Says Health Law May Need to Be Changed - Former President Says People Whose Policies Are Being Canceled Should Be Helped

From The Wall Street Journal:

 

Former President Bill Clinton said he thinks the Affordable Care Act may need to be changed to help consumers whose health insurance policies are being canceled.
 

"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," Mr. Clinton said in an interview with online magazine OZY released Tuesday.

 

Mr. Clinton's remarks come amid growing unease among Democrats about a balky website performance, low enrollment levels and mounting cancellations of existing policies by health insurers. Democratic lawmakers, who successfully beat back efforts to repeal the law, now worry that they will be blamed for its problems at the ballot box.

Insurers, who have sent thousands of cancellation notices to people, say the policies aren't compliant with new requirements for coverage and have changed too much since 2010 to be eligible for a "grandfathering" exemption that allows some people to keep plans that existed before the law was passed.

President Barack Obama, who promised Americans they could keep their existing policies if they liked them. He apologized last week to Americans with cancelled policies, saying "that's something that we're going to do everything we can to get fixed."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mr. Obama agreed with Mr. Clinton that fixes are needed and has told his team to look at options "to make sure that nobody is put in a position where their plans have been canceled and they can't afford a better plan even though they'd like to have a better plan."

Administration officials are zeroing in on people who insurance will be canceled on Jan. 1 and make too much income to qualify for federal subsidies.

There's no obvious solution. White House officials don't want to encourage insurers to continue offering bare-bones policies with high deductibles or limited coverage. And since health insurance is mostly regulated at the state level, it could be difficult to make changes quickly. White House officials haven't ruled out changing the law, but they have been reluctant to seek legislative fixes, worried that Republicans could use the opportunity to gut it.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) became the latest Democrat to throw her weight behind legislation to allow people to keep existing insurance plans. She said Tuesday she would support a bill from Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) that would essentially require insurance companies to continue offer all plans in effect at the end of 2013. Sens. Kay Hagan (D., N.C.) and Mark Pryor (D., Ark.) are also co-sponsors.

This isn't the first time Mr. Clinton, one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, has weighed in on a sensitive White House issue. Last year, he made a comment about extending the Bush-era tax cuts during the "fiscal cliff" debate, a remark that he later walked back.

Congressional Republicans seized on Mr. Clinton's statement as validation for their criticism of the health law and the need to offer help to people whose policies were canceled.

"I applaud President Clinton for joining the bipartisan call for President Obama to keep his promise to the American people,'' said House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio.), adding that the comments "signify a growing recognition that Americans were misled when they were promised that they could keep their coverage.''

A spokesman for Mr. Clinton had no comment about reactions to the former president's remarks.

House Republicans have scheduled five hearings this week about the law. On Friday, the House is scheduled to consider legislation by Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R., Mich.) to allow health insurers to keep offering plans next year if they were on the market in 2013, even if they don't meet the law's standards.

Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said he would oppose the Upton bill. An aide to the House Democratic leadership said, however, that they expected many Democrats would vote for it, noting that some have voted for past GOP efforts to delay or roll back the health care law.