From Politico:
Senate Democrats will never vote to repeal Obamacare. But once the deed is done, a surprising number of them say they’re open to helping Republicans replace it. […]
So far, Democrats are taking a hard line: They won’t support anything that reverses Obamacare’s overriding goal of providing millions more Americans with meaningful, affordable health care coverage.
But if the GOP comes up with a proposal to fix the flaws with the current law — such as faltering insurance exchanges and fast-rising premiums— while maintaining subsidies and coverage for low-income Americans? Well, in that case, some Democrats will be hard-pressed to stay on the sidelines.
“If there is a path toward saving the best parts of Obamacare that are actually helping deliver affordable quality health care to millions of people while addressing some of the challenges, flaws and weaknesses of Obamacare, we should work hard with Republicans on that,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). “But we don’t know yet if they’re serious.”
Looks like we have to play whack a mole with Carper and Coons. As soon as we get one bipartisan Republican enabler in line, we have another pop up. Yes, let’s accept Republican framing and say you are willing to work together on a replacement. Repeat after me, Chris: The replacement for Obamacare is Obamacare. If you want to improve it with a public option or a Medicare buy in or more cost controls, fine. Anything else is a non-starter, like repealing the mandate or cost control regulations on insurance companies.