Republicans Want to Kill Obamacare Without the Blame

Republicans have a problem. They’ve vowed to repeal Obamacare, but they don’t want to take the blame when some of the 20 million people who get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act lose it. The GOP strategy is to argue that they aren’t actually killing Obamacare; all they’re doing is giving it a proper burial. “People must remember that Obamacare just doesn’t work; and it is not affordable,” President-elect Donald Trump tweeted on Jan. 3. “It will fall of its own weight - be careful!” he added the next day.

It’s true that Obamacare isn’t in the pink of health. Premiums, which insurers set artificially low in the first years to win market share, have soared. Premiums for benchmark plans in states that use the federal insurance exchange are going up 25 percent this year from 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in an October report. Even with those increases, some insurers have dropped out because they can’t make money. “Obamacare is in a death spiral and we must take action before things get worse,” Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said in an October statement.