Here's what should happen next on healthcare (WaPo editorial board)

[ginnyinWI]

"“LET OBAMACARE FAIL,” President Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. Has there ever been a more cynical abdication of presidential responsibility? Mr. Trump is apparently indifferent to the pain that sabotaging the individual health insurance market would cause millions of Americans. Congress must therefore act responsibly.

Barring some totally unforeseen developments in Congress, Mr. Trump’s breezy promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act has evaporated — and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) previously acknowledged the GOP’s responsibility if such a circumstance came to pass: “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,” he said earlier this month. In other words, his Republican majority finally would have to reach out to Democrats to help shape and pass a bill to repair, not replace, Obamacare.

Several moderate Democrats have recently expressed openness to reforming Obamacare in concert with Republicans, and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) on Tuesday morning endorsed bipartisan cooperation to stabilize insurance markets. If Mr. Schumer is serious, he should appoint a panel of Democrats who are willing to cooperate to serve as his side’s negotiators. Those on the more reasonable end of the Senate GOP caucus have begun sounding the right notes, too. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) called over the weekend for engaging with Democrats. From his recovery bed, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) insisted Monday that “the Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation’s governors.” The Senate is learning, again, that it is hard to govern this country from anywhere but the center.

If enough people in each of the two parties accept that Obamacare is here to stay and that it requires fixes, the next agreements would come fairly easily. The House and Senate Republican health-care bills contained a variety of provisions that would have shored up existing individual health insurance markets. Those can be copied and pasted into a new, bipartisan bill."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-ignore-trumps-call-to-let-obamacare-fail-do-this-instead/2017/07/18/e8d0e0b0-6bce-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.d0c208fa0c87&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1

[tonyt53]

1. Retain and repair beats the hell out of repeal and replace.

They all know the starting point for repairing the ACA - shoring up the state exchanges. But I have the feeling that the GOP will want to have give and take on even this starting point. Give average people something, then take away something for the wealthy.

[WinkyDink]

2. Republicans will never accede to this. They are still trying to destroy Medicare and Social

Security, FGS, around for many decades!