Bill Clinton attacks Obamacare ; calls it the "Craziest thing in the world"

[rafta_rafta]

Aetna's pulling out is a move to arm wrestle the government into allowing their merger.

ACA is a necessary intermediary step on to single payer. It's probably the only healthcare reform that could get passed. It's upto the coming government to now rein in the costs and start laying the groundwork for single payer

[Shadows]

Aetna's pulling out is a move to arm wrestle the government into allowing their merger.

ACA is a necessary intermediary step on to single payer. It's probably the only healthcare reform that could get passed. It's upto the coming government to now rein in the costs and start laying the groundwork for single payer

Agree on most counts apart from the passing stuff. ACA is as bad as Single Payer for the GOP which is crazy IMO. How many people from the GOP supported this in the Senate or the House? After so much negotiation, allowing private players, no big government intervention, No single payer, so much sucking upto GOP what did we get - 0 Republicans!!

 This ACA was a brainchild of the Heritage foundation & conservative foundation but the GOP would never support any healthcare proposal at this point. How many times did they vote to repeal Obamacare?

How many times did they appeal in Court? Hell these guys shut the whole effing Government down to repeal ACA? What worse can they do with Single Payer - Shoot someone in the Senate? The only problem was the Democrats had little guts, compromise too early with GOP & there is a large moderate Dem bloc who don't support Public Option & a Govt. role!

The passing of Single Payer depends on how progressive the Democrats are, how hard they push to get moderate Dems on board & if there are leaders with guts to pass this damn thing

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Guys, it's an election. Nobody cares about the nuances of what Bill was saying about or whether or not it's congruent with why Obama is saying. All people see is Hillary's spouse and a former Democratic President bagging on the signature achievement of the incumbent Democratic President.

President Cankles needs to STFU and let Hillary handle this.

Bill had criticism for a bill signed by Obama.  So what?  Hillary has helped make sure one of Obama's major initiatives of the final years of his presidency (TPP) doesn't get enacted.  Neither of these is a net bad thing for her campaign.

[rafta_rafta]

Bill had criticism for a bill signed by Obama.  So what?  Hillary has helped make sure one of Obama's major initiatives of the final years of his presidency (TPP) doesn't get enacted.  Neither of these is a net bad thing for her campaign.

The democrats need to get black voters to turn out. Publicly criticising Obama isn't going to help with that one bit. Hillary has positioned her campaign on Obama's policies because of his high approval ratings.

TPP was an exception because that was a political necessity to beat Bernie. There is no way a candidate can do well touting free trade in an election year with such a pronounced anti establishment sentiment

[NOVA Green]

This is a non-issue in the context of the 2016 Presidential Election....

Even Republicans aren't actively running on repeal/replace, etc...

Sure, ACA has flaws and needs improvement, as most Americans recognize, but has still brought the rate of uninsured Americans to the lowest levels in decades, or possibly ever in the history of our great nation.

The cost structure needs to be addressed, and Bill is just recognizing the reality, and is in line with a majority of Democratic Senators:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-liberals-public-option-228501

If anything, this is a deliberate nod to the Progressive wing of the party and help bring some of the Bernie holdouts on board (Especially Millennials) and assure the Democratic base that this is still a priority, especially when those on the "public exchanges" will likely see a significant premium hike right before the November election.

I would write a paper on this some day but from a macro-economic perspective, these stuff rarely work. Why would every major country in the world go for a version of Single Payer even Canada where 1 state started experimentally & it caught fire.

You are a very sensible guy here. While the Affordable care bought many into the Insurance net n did a great jobs with pre-existing conditions n so on but the truth is it is will be almost impossible to rein in costs. We are seeing 30-40-50-60% increases in many states - Costs are surging in a massive manner upwards! And I doubt there is any solution.

AETNA is pulling out - Many states will be left with 1 Insurance provider - This thing has no solution unless Dems realize it n push for a Public Option. I mean it is still better than having NOTHING. But the way it is going & with monopoly & dominance of the Insurance company soon, it will outweigh the benefits of ACA!

I have long supported the public option/single-payer for decades, and absolutely agree with your points  regarding the financial benefits to American consumers, and am proud that my current Senator Jeff Merkley sponsored a bill with 30+ Democrats in the Senate a few weeks ago to dramatically overhaul the current system.

Even under the employer based model, I was paying $600/Month for Myself+Spouse (Medical/Dental/Vision), in addition to whatever out-of-pocket costs for co-pays, deductibles, etc.... and until I was recently laid off was making higher wages than the average American.

The cost-structure needs to be fundamentally revamped, and although there are many drivers behind the high cost of health care in America, all of the overhead and business inefficiencies caused by the current model is certainly a major factor in the take home pay of Americans, and basically the Democratic Party by adopting the Republican "Dole Plan" of the '90s because of a few Southern Dem holdouts, has gone far towards addressing the coverage issue (And reduced government payments and overload of ERs caused by that system) but NOT fundamentally addressed the cost-structure, although overall annual premium increases have dropped a bit since ACA.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Bill had criticism for a bill signed by Obama.  So what?  Hillary has helped make sure one of Obama's major initiatives of the final years of his presidency (TPP) doesn't get enacted.  Neither of these is a net bad thing for her campaign.

The democrats need to get black voters to turn out. Publicly criticising Obama isn't going to help with that one bit. Hillary has positioned her campaign on Obama's policies because of his high approval ratings.

TPP was an exception because that was a political necessity to beat Bernie. There is no way a candidate can do well touting free trade in an election year with such a pronounced anti establishment sentiment

I give black voters a little bit of credit that they can realize the current system isn't working for everyone.

[Shadows]

This is a non-issue in the context of the 2016 Presidential Election....

Even Republicans aren't actively running on repeal/replace, etc...

Sure, ACA has flaws and needs improvement, as most Americans recognize, but has still brought the rate of uninsured Americans to the lowest levels in decades, or possibly ever in the history of our great nation.

The cost structure needs to be addressed, and Bill is just recognizing the reality, and is in line with a majority of Democratic Senators:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-liberals-public-option-228501

If anything, this is a deliberate nod to the Progressive wing of the party and help bring some of the Bernie holdouts on board (Especially Millennials) and assure the Democratic base that this is still a priority, especially when those on the "public exchanges" will likely see a significant premium hike right before the November election.

I would write a paper on this some day but from a macro-economic perspective, these stuff rarely work. Why would every major country in the world go for a version of Single Payer even Canada where 1 state started experimentally & it caught fire.

You are a very sensible guy here. While the Affordable care bought many into the Insurance net n did a great jobs with pre-existing conditions n so on but the truth is it is will be almost impossible to rein in costs. We are seeing 30-40-50-60% increases in many states - Costs are surging in a massive manner upwards! And I doubt there is any solution.

AETNA is pulling out - Many states will be left with 1 Insurance provider - This thing has no solution unless Dems realize it n push for a Public Option. I mean it is still better than having NOTHING. But the way it is going & with monopoly & dominance of the Insurance company soon, it will outweigh the benefits of ACA!

I have long supported the public option/single-payer for decades, and absolutely agree with your points  regarding the financial benefits to American consumers, and am proud that my current Senator Jeff Merkley sponsored a bill with 30+ Democrats in the Senate a few weeks ago to dramatically overhaul the current system.

Even under the employer based model, I was paying $600/Month for Myself+Spouse (Medical/Dental/Vision), in addition to whatever out-of-pocket costs for co-pays, deductibles, etc.... and until I was recently laid off was making higher wages than the average American.

The cost-structure needs to be fundamentally revamped, and although there are many drivers behind the high cost of health care in America, all of the overhead and business inefficiencies caused by the current model is certainly a major factor in the take home pay of Americans, and basically the Democratic Party by adopting the Republican "Dole Plan" of the '90s because of a few Southern Dem holdouts, has gone far towards addressing the coverage issue (And reduced government payments and overload of ERs caused by that system) but NOT fundamentally addressed the cost-structure, although overall annual premium increases have dropped a bit since ACA.

I think you bring a very interesting point about Healthcare costs naturally rising with or without ACA. I think ACA also managed to control increases in the 1st few years. But I think the last couple of years & especially from 2015-2016 odd, the prices are blowing up with huge increases. I think ACA has seen its limit & it is time to look past it! I am absolutely sure Dems could win an election on Single Payer if they run on it. Coloradocare could be a big BIG thing, if it succeeds & gets healthcare for everyone & at a much cheaper rate (as per the current report it will be  much cheaper). I think that will be an eye opener for everyone & maybe other states like Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, etc might start it.

Anyways I think objectively speaking this was a very bad timing by Bill Clinton, he should have said this after the elections at the earliest or at best internally.

This should cost the Dems some discomfort. Republicans will run ads against ACA with Bill Clinton. You have got a 30s ad ready made - Even Bill Clinton thinks Obamacare is a disaster! That can't help - I am not talking about African American turnout - I mean Dems will get maybe 84-85% atleast if not 90-92% etc - That is not a major worry.

But on the whole the 2nd last Dem president & the Presidential Candidate's wife calling Obamcare crazy makes for very bad endorsement for the plan - If Trump is smart he should absolutely bring it p in the debate!