Editorial: Time for compromise on health care

Last week, former House Speaker John Boehner told a Las Vegas audience that Congressional Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare. It's been around too long and the American people have gotten accustomed to it." However, he said the GOP may be able to "move it away from government control" by getting rid of the employer/individual mandates, giving states more discretion in how they deliver Medicaid (though the existing expansion "will be there") and repealing "a lot of the Obamacare taxes."

While these would be major changes to our health care system, a series of isolated adjustments wouldn't be nearly as much of a shock as a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. But President Trump and the Republican leadership still seem to be obsessed with demolishing the bill in its entirety. For example, the most recent botched proposal in the Senate was a repeal amendment that President Obama vetoed in 2015. Although the amendment would have kept Obamacare in place for another two years, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would've left three-quarters of Americans without access to the individual market -- and another 32 million without health insurance -- by 2026.

When Boehner said the "American people have gotten accustomed" to Obamacare, he was right.

Although many Americans want to see the ACA improved, they're not eager to see it dismantled -- nor have they been fond of its replacements. According to a survey conducted by USA TODAY and Suffolk University last month, only 12 percent of Americans supported the Better Care Reconciliation Act. A poll released by NPR, PBS News Hour and Marist on June 28 found similar results: 17 percent of respondents supported the bill.

Each of these polls revealed that a substantial proportion of Americans want Congress to address problems with Obamacare but keep the overall structure intact.

Last week, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published a survey that found similar results. Only 13 percent of Americans said they were in favor of repealing Obamacare without a replacement -- a proportion that climbs to 27 percent for Republicans. As the AP notes, "A foundation for common ground seems to be this: Nearly everyone wants changes to the Obama law, while hardly anyone wants to see it abolished without a substitute in place." One of the most remarkable findings in the AP-NORC survey was the fact that 8 in 10 Republicans support negotiating with Democrats "if the current GOP overhaul effort fails, rather than sticking with their own 'repeal and replace' campaign of the past seven years." If the current overhaul effort hasn't failed yet, it's certainly close.

But Republicans are trapped by their own rhetoric. Obamacare passed without a single Republican vote, and strident promises to "repeal and replace" it have been obligatory in campaign speeches and town halls ever since. One Washington Post analysis found that House Republicans tried to repeal or alter Obamacare 54 times by March 2014 (it was signed into law four years earlier). A week before the election, Trump promised to "immediately repeal and replace Obamacare," and he did so in characteristically hysterical fashion: "If we don't repeal and replace Obamacare, we will destroy American health care forever."

As Republican voters start to realize the value of compromise, they may want to remember that rewarding this kind of rhetoric at the ballot box year after year is what got us here in the first place. Meanwhile, after another unsuccessful attempt to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday, the GOP leadership should take another look at the polls.

Members of The Capital-Journal's editorial advisory board are Zach Ahrens, Matt Johnson, Ray Beers Jr., Laura Burton, Garry Cushinberry, Mike Hall, Jessica Lucas, Veronica Padilla and John Stauffer.

Credit: The Capital-Journal Editorial Board