Clinton: Supreme Court could rule against healthcare law

There's a chance that the Supreme Court could rule the so-called "individual mandate" in the healthcare reform law unconstitutional, but on the whole the bill will stay in tact, former President Bill Clinton said.

"Well, I think - I guess, you know, there's some chance, given how political it is, the courts, that they would strike down the mandatory purchase, although I find it amazing that they would  I mean you can make people buy automobile liability insurance," Clinton said in an interview with CNN taped Friday. "And the combined impact of the burden of people not being insured on the rest of us economically is nowhere near that of health care."

"But I think on the whole, the bill will be kept," Clinton continued.

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not fast-track its review of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's challenge against the healthcare law. 

The Court's decision, which did not contain any explanatory comment or dissent, was largely expected, and returns the case to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Clinton also criticized the healthcare aspect of House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget plan, which would replace Medicare with subsidies for insurance companies. 

Lately, Democrats have been working to portray the healthcare aspect of the plan as one that would effectively eliminate Medicare and replace it with a voucher system for seniors.

"I think the most interesting thing is in the - the Republican budget, the line budget, they proposed to save money on the budget by giving everybody a Medicare voucher in 2022," Clinton said. "So what this bill will do will actually increase the cost of health care."

In the end though, Clinton said, Republicans won't be able to fully get rid of the healthcare law that President Obama signed into law. 

"The Supreme Court won't do all their work for them. The Congress, the Senate will not vote to repeal it," Clinton said. "The president will not - will veto it if they do. And now that America has seen what's in this bill from Medicare, I think that they'll have a hard time doing it."

Republicans have criticized it for illegally making Americans purchase health insurance and only making the country's economic woes worse.

Over the last month or so, Democrats have begun trying to flip and repeat the heated exchanges at congressional town-hall events around the country. Through media blitzes and mailers Democrats are hoping to portray Ryan's budget as nationally unpopular and detrimental to the country's economic recovery.

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