Repeal GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare

Despite the collapse of the latest GOP effort to rewrite the Obama health care law Republican lawmakers remain determine to dismantle it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was handed a devastating defeat July 17 when two more Republican senators announced their opposition to his health care bill.

The announcement by Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas means McConnell does not have the votes to even begin debate on his bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Besides Lee and Moran, two other GOP senators had previously declared their opposition to McCo-nnell's bill: moderate Susan Collins of Maine and conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky. Other moderates were also wavering and could have been difficult for McConnell and President Donald Trump to win over because of the bill's Medicaid cuts. All Senate Democrats are opposed.

But the Republican lawmakers' misguided quest to kill former President Barack Obama's signature health care law is only temporarily halted.

For seven years, Republican lawmakers have pledged to repeal the 2010 health care law and many are unwilling to give up the fight.

This is the second setback on the issue in three weeks for McConnell. In June, he abandoned an initial bill after he lacked enough GOP support to pass.

McConnell and Trump are now leading the call for Republican lawmakers to repeal Obamacare now and replace it later, which is a terrible idea.

Millions of Americans will lose health care coverage and premiums will rise even higher if the Affordable Care Act is eliminated.

Collins is right when she said repealing the law without an immediate replacement would produce "great anxiety for individuals" who benefit from Obama's statute and "cause the insurance markets to go into turmoil."

McConnell's plan to simply repeal the statute should be rejected.

The Affordable Care act is not a perfect law. There is room for improvements and areas where there could be bipartisan compromise to improve it. Polls show that most Americans said they would prefer Republicans and Democrats to work together on health care and would like to see a bipartisan effort to fix Obamacare.

But conservatives must stop trying to force through a health care bill that slashes Medicaid and expands tax cuts for the rich.

Voters must send a strong message to conservative Republicans that it is time to abandon efforts to tear down the Affordable Care Act.

(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)