In their quest to repeal Obamacare, Republicans have faced two political problems. First, while the Affordable Care Act isn’t a popular law, polls show that the idea of simply going back to the way things were is far less popular.
The second is that for the last three years they’ve been promising a replacement for the president’s signature legislation, and their failure to provide one made them look uninterested in — or incapable of –- addressing in a serious way a real problem for American families.
But on Monday, Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) — three Republicans who have long worked on health care issues — tried to address these problems by finally unveiling a comprehensive alternative to Obamacare.
In one sense, it’s a sign of progress, an acknowledgement that Obamacare is changing the American health care system in ways that can’t easily be undone and a concrete proposal that can serve as a point of serious debate.
The problem is that it’s grounded in the same old conservative thinking about what ails our health care system. And, as such, a central piece of the lawmakers’ solution is making the vast majority of Americans pay more for their coverage.
