Clinton’s promise to ‘fix’ Obamacare rate hikes unlikely to happen with GOP-held House

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton promised to fix problems with Obamacare that led to average rate hikes of 25 percent next year for mid-level health plans before subsidies.

But a quick fix, or any fix, seems unlikely given that it would probably require congressional action.

“We’re going to make changes to fix problems like that,” Clinton said in an interview Wednesday with WHQT HOT 105.1 Miami. “The president and I have talked about it.”

“We’re going to really tackle that,” she added. “We’re going to get copays and premiums and deductibles down. We’re going to tackle prescription drug costs. And we can do that without ripping away the insurance that people now have. That’s the plan of my opponent.”

Jonathan Gruber, a former key adviser on the law, said on CNN on Wednesday that one such fix would involve raising the penalty for people who forgo insurance, to get more healthy people paying into the system, which could lower costs for others.

Even under the rosiest scenarios for Democrats, most political analysts believe Republicans would retain control of the House, which has voted dozens of times to repeal Obamacare. GOP leaders are under intense pressure from their core voters to keep pressure on defeating the law and have shown no appetite to work with Democrats to fix it.

Clinton certainly knows that. She went on to make another case for the law.

“Look, this is a major step forward: 20 million people” insured, she said. “And actually, I’m sure you noticed, predominantly working people, African-American, Latino people now have access to insurance.”

Donald Trump, she argued, would “take everything away, give it all back to the insurance companies.”