Editorial

After seven years of railing against Obamacare, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives dropped the ball Friday in what is being described as an embarrassing epic failure.

President Donald Trump and GOP leaders yanked their bill off the House floor as divisions within the party left the bill destined for failure. At the end of a dramatic day in Washington, Trump blamed Democrats for the bill’s inability to gain approval. In reality, the Republican Party is to blame.

Democrats, sitting in a clear minority on Capitol Hill, were opposed all along to undoing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was the signature legislation from President Barack Obama. What is likely to happen, at some point, is a lot of tweaking to the act, not a dismantling.

For the majority Republicans, more thought should have been given to what the ACA means to many Americans. No doubt, it has flaws, which members of both parties agree. However, for some people, it’s the only road into health insurance.

What the public surprisingly saw this past week is a divided Republican Party where moderate and conservative members derailed the effort to repeal and replace the ACA.

Today, according to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, there are no immediate plans to wade back into the issue after the negative assessments piled up against the House bill.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the GOP bill would have resulted in 24 million additional uninsured people in a decade and lead to higher medical costs for many lower-income and people just shy of 65 when they would become eligible for Medicare.

Along the way, hospitals, doctors, nurses and consumer groups grew in opposition to the plan.

The desire to dismantle the ACA was a rallying cry leading into last November’s election. But not much thought was put into what to do once the balance of power shifted heavily to the Republicans.

Perhaps now they can turn their attention to improving health care for Americans under the umbrella of the act, as well as addressing other items on the Trump administration’s agenda.

A tremendous service to the public would be for Republicans and Democrats to closely examine the weaknesses of Obamacare and join in a bipartisan effort to make it more affordable and effective.

For the political environment in this country, that would be a victory.

For Americans, strengthening health coverage and providing more insurance options would be a service of government we all could applaud and appreciate.

Often times, political factions become too intent on making ideological points without considering the impact on the people they serve. The national health care plan is not a bad idea – it simply needs bipartisan work in Congress to make it better.