Bill Clinton Urges Obama to Yield on Health Law

Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday joined the intensifying criticism of the botched health care rollout, urging President Obama to accept a change in the law that would allow all Americans to keep their current health insurance plan.

In an interview published on Ozy, a web magazine, Mr. Clinton said that Mr. Obama should make good on the promise that he and his administration repeatedly made to the American public.

“I personally believe even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Mr. Clinton said during the interview.

Mr. Clinton’s comment adds to the already intense pressure on the White House from both political parties. It carries special weight given the former president’s role in Mr. Obama’s re-election bid and Mr. Clinton’s own long history of involvement with health care policy.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, addressed the comments Tuesday afternoon by noting that Mr. Obama had said something similar in an interview last week.

“The president has tasked his team with looking at a range of options, as he said, 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,” Mr. Carney said.

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