EDITORIAL: Fix Obamacare? McConnell finally shows some common sense

July 07--There's no denying the extreme unpopularity of congressional Republicans' proposed replacements for the Affordable Care Act -- both the House version and the Senate version. There's also no denying that while Obamacare may be working for millions of Californians, it isn't in many states. In one-third of all U.S. counties, there's only one insurer available on health care exchanges, often offering policies with the double whammy of high premiums and high deductibles.

Now a Republican from a state where the ACA is struggling has figured out that it might be wise to try to seek a bipartisan fix of the existing law's problems rather than replacing it with something even more unpopular. Luckily for America, it's perhaps the most powerful Republican in Congress: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

"If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur," McConnell said at a Rotary Club lunch in his home state. "We've got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state."

If McConnell's pragmatism can replace the ferocious partisanship America has witnessed in health care fights in recent years, that's fantastic news. Here's hoping it proves the starting point for a bold effort to improve the U.S. health care system, which costs far more than in other advanced nations without yielding better results. That's got to change.

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