Obamacare architect Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel said Friday that Bill Clinton "has a point" when he criticized the health care law and called it "the craziest thing in the world."
Clinton castigated the Affordable Care Act on Oct. 3 during a campaign stop for Hillary Clinton, ripping the law for causing spiked premiums and limited coverage for those who did not qualify for the law's subsidies.
Emanuel said no one ever claimed the law was "perfect" and "tweaks" needed to be made. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo pointed out it was not only conservatives criticizing the law, playing the clip of Clinton's comments.
"You've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people that are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half," Clinton said. "It's the craziest thing in the world."
Clinton later walked back the remarks and insisted he supports the law.
Emanuel responded that Clinton was one of the "sharpest" people on health care policy.
"So you agree with what he said, then?" Bartiromo asked.
"Wait a second," Emanuel said. "If you listen to the full thing that he said, I think he has a point, which is that for Americans between 250 percent of the poverty line and 400 percent of the poverty line, roughly $50,000 to $100,000, we need to bolster the subsidies in the individual market."
Emanuel went on to say most of those people get insurance through their employer, and he criticized companies for placing burdensome health care costs on the employees.