Yesterday, Bill Clinton praised Maryland gubernatorial candidate and current Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown for fixing problems with Maryland’s healthcare exchange and boosting state enrollment. Via The Baltimore Sun:
Clinton, who experienced something of a political resurgence for defending the national health care law during the 2012 presidential election, told about 700 donors that Brown deserved credit for confronting the problems faced by the exchange once they were discovered and for helping the state to ultimately boost enrollment. He repeatedly described Brown as a problem solver who could bring people together.
By “fix” Clinton must have meant completely scrap. After Anthony Brown’s boss promised to “lead the nation” in implementing Obamacare, Maryland did anything but. Despite launching later than every other state, Maryland’s exchange crashed on the first day and continued to have problems throughout the first enrollment period. The technical problems got to be so bad that the state government decided to completely scrap it, at a cost of $261 million to taxpayers.
Clinton’s claim that Brown helped the state to boost enrollment is also bogus. According to data from The New York Times, Maryland only enrolled 45% of their pre-launch target in a private insurance plan – the seventh worst percentage in the country.
The real question is whether or not Hillary agrees with Bill’s assessment of the Maryland healthcare exchange.
We would ask Hillary Clinton this question, but it’s doubtful she would give an answer. It’s been a week since The Daily Beast reported that Clinton refused to designate Boko Haram as a FTO and all we have heard is crickets.