Then-Sens. Joe Biden and John Kerry were both opposed to Hillary Clinton’s 1993 health-care reform program, according to documents released by the Clinton presidential library.
Clinton marked a handwritten “No” beside Biden’s name on Clinton’s list of Capitol Hill lawmakers that she needed to win over for her universal health care law, known as the “Clinton health plan” or “Hillarycare,” to pass.
John Kerry, meanwhile, was marked with a “Probably not.”
“Hillarycare” ended up dying in the Democratic-controlled Senate in 1994 without coming to a floor vote.
As vice president, Biden has been a loyal supporter of the Obama administration’s health-care reform law. Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, added a provision to Obamacare when he was a senator that increased federal spending by forcing hospitals’ Medicare reimbursements to be provided by federal, rather than state, taxpayers. Kerry, who said during his 2004 presidential campaign that health care is not a privilege but a right, voted for Obamacare in December 2009.