Although President Donald Trump declared earlier this year that, “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated,” the difficulty in repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is obvious to all who understand the issue. This is particularly true in Washington, where the state’s 1990s wrangling over health care contained parallels to the current travails of Congress.
So, while Trump reacted Tuesday by saying his new plan is to “let Obamacare fail,” that should not be regarded as a viable option. Instead, the Republican-controlled Congress should come up with an improved idea or strive to make the health care overhaul passed in 2010 work for the American people.
Republicans spent the final seven years of the Obama presidency decrying the Affordable Care Act, knowing that their efforts to repeal the legislation would be vetoed if sent to the White House. Now that they are in charge, reality has thrown cold water on that rhetoric. Republican plans to replace Obamacare have proven widely unpopular with the public, and late Monday the latest effort was scuttled when three Republican senators declared their opposition. By Tuesday, a plan to simply repeal the Affordable Care Act and spend two years crafting a replacement — conveniently carrying them past the 2018 midterm elections — was quickly rebuffed.
Complaining, it has been demonstrated, is easy; governing is hard.
In that regard, the situation is similar to what Washington endured beginning in 1993. A law signed by then-Gov. Mike Lowry made the state the first to require residents to have health insurance and required employers to offer coverage. Republicans campaigned against what they said was government overreach and gained control of the Legislature before setting out to overturn the law. But, as Pam MacEwan, who served on the commission implementing the law, told the Los Angeles Times this year: “It’s much easier to break something. It’s more difficult to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. … And that’s when people get hurt.”
