Bill Clinton’s Obamacare remarks put Hillary on the hot seat

Former President Bill Clinton put his wife in a tough political spot by re-injecting Obamacare into a policy-free presidential race — with just 35 days until Election Day and the media intensely focused on Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Clinton’s comments about “this crazy system,” as he referred to Obamacare Monday night, threaten to shift the campaign’s focus to the Affordable Care Act and its mounting problems, among them, soaring health insurance premiums, fleeing health plans and young people reluctant to sign up for coverage.

Even more importantly, Bill Clinton’s frank take on Obamacare’s shortfalls tees up more policy questions for Hillary Clinton, the candidate — so much so that Clinton herself felt the need to address them only hours later. “I’ve been saying we’ve got to fix what’s broken and keep what works,” she said, “and that’s what exactly we’re going to do.”

She contrasted her commitment to tackle premium and drug costs with Trump’s proposal to scrap the Affordable Care Act altogether, which she said would turn the health system “back over to the insurance companies.”

All the while, Trump and other Republicans gleefully exploited the ex-president’s health care tirade as evidence the health care law is not working — and that Clinton herself is part of that legacy of Democratic dysfunction.

“Did you hear yesterday?” Trump asked supporters at a rally Tuesday in Prescott Valley, Arizona. “…President Bill Clinton came out and told the truth about Obamacare. “… He’s absolutely trashed President Obama’s signature legislation.”

“At least he’s honest,” Trump said, while noting that Hillary Clinton “wants to double down on Obamacare.”

At a campaign event for his wife in Flint, Mich., Bill Clinton had praised the law for insuring millions of Americans, but noted that many middle-class Americans were still unable to afford coverage and talked up his wife’s plan to allow those close to retirement age to buy into Medicare.

“The people who are getting killed on this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies because they’re not organized,” he said. “They don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies so they’re getting whacked.

“So you’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.”

Republicans see Bill Clinton’s comments as validation of what they’ve been saying all along about Obamacare’s woes.

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