The Obama Diary

‘Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt’ ~ Abraham Lincoln

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Today in 1999 Bill Clinton signed a law blurring lines between banks, insurers and investment firms and that all went just super.

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  (@pourmecoffee) November 12, 2025

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Jonathan Cohn: Bill Clinton’s Obamacare Comments Are Wrong

in a new interview already getting attention and sure to get more, Clinton didn’t explain things very well. He made a statement that’s likely to create some misimpressions about the possibilities of health care reform, while giving the administration and its allies yet another political headache.

He said that some young people facing higher premiums under the new system should have the right to keep their old plans, even if it requires a change in the law. Clinton framed it carefully: He said specifically he had in mind only those young people whose incomes were higher than four times the poverty line, making them ineligible for subsidies. (That’s about $45,000 for a single adult.) But he also suggested it was a matter of principle, because those people had heard the vow that they could keep their plans: “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 is leaning toward fix for people who find that "even though the coverage is better, the cost may be a challenge for them," Carney says

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Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) November 12, 2025

Clinton’s statement makes it seem as if there is some simple way to let people keep their current plans—to avoid any disruption in the existing non-group market while still delivering the law’s benefits. As readers of this space know, no such magic solution exists.

.@presssec says the Upton Obamacare bill is "not an effective fix … would cause more problems and create more problems and do more harm."

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Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 12, 2025

Broadly speaking, the Affordable Care Act seeks to make two sets of changes to what’s called the “non-group” market. It establishes a minimum set of benefits, which means everything from covering “essential” services to eliminating annual or lifetime limits on payments. At the same time, the law prohibits insurers from discriminating among customers: They can’t charge higher prices, withhold benefits, or deny coverage altogether to people who represent medical risks. They have to take everybody, varying price only for age (within a three-to-one ratio) and for tobacco use.

More here

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If you're looking to get past the Clinton-Obamacare click-bait headlines, read @CitizenCohn's great piece on this: newrepublic.com/article/115570…

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Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 12, 2025

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