Former President Bill Clinton pointed out a flaw in Obamacare's ability to keep projected costs low during a promotional interview with President Obama about his increasingly unpopular health care law Tuesday.
"This only works, for example, if young people show up," he said. "And even if they buy the cheapest plan, then they claim their tax credit so it won't cost them much, 100 bucks a month or so. We've got to have them in the pools, because otherwise all these projected low costs cannot be held if older people with preexisting conditions are disproportionately represented in any given state. You've got to have everybody lined up."
CLINTON: I should point out that so far in most states, one of the good things that -- at least I didn't know what would happen, is that when we began this in the United States, more than 80 percent of the American states had only one or two companies writing health insurance who had more than 80 percent of the market. So there was, in effect, no price competition. So what I was terrified of was, you know, we would open these things and there would only be one company show up and bid, and this whole thing, we'd be having an academic conversation. Instead, it's actually led to the establishment of more companies doing more bidding, and I think part of it is they have greater confidence that they can deliver health care at a more modest cost. So, so far, it's good, but I think it's important for you to tell the people why we're doing all this outreach, because this only works, for example, if young people show up, and even if they buy the cheapest plan, then they claim their tax credit so it won't cost them much, 100 bucks a month or so. We've got to have them in the pools, because otherwise all these projected low costs cannot be held if older people with preexisting conditions are disproportionately represented in any given state. You've got to have everybody lined up.
[H/T Brian Hughes]