It would seem that one thing needs to be made very clear in any post about healthcare – the snidely nicknamed Obamacare is the same thing as the Affordable Care Act. It would appear that some Trumpoids think they are different. Now that’s all cleared up, resistance to the rethuglicans’ spite move is surfacing. This is a good thing, but whether or not it will be enough to smack some sense into the spiteful heads, that remains to be seen. This insistence on dismantling workable healthcare should be waking people up, because there is absolutely no reason to do it. None. There’s even a really great reason to leave it be, along with the little fact that it would be good thing to allow millions of people to keep their healthcare.

Republicans in Congress are hoping to make a big political statement this month by rushing to repeal Obamacare [Affordable Care Act]. Considering that Republicans are about to control the White House and two chambers of Congress, that legislative goal may seem like it’s firmly within reach. But the GOP’s repeal effort is actually in serious trouble.

Republicans’ Obamacare [Affordable Care Act] strategy — known as “repeal and delay” — is losing support from several moderate lawmakers who don’t want to move forward with repeal before the party has landed on a replacement plan. If they hold out, there’s no way Obamacare repeal can move forward.

On Monday evening, five GOP senators introduced a measure that would essentially slow down the repeal effort working its way through Congress.

[…]

GOP leaders are attempting to unite their party behind “repeal and delay” because they need more time to figure out what to do next. Republicans have yet to agree on a real health care reform plan to take Obamacare’s [Affordable Care Act] place. So they want to make a political statement now and work through the policy details later.

But there’s broad consensus that “repeal and delay” would wreak havoc on the insurance industry. Major lobbying groups like the American Medical Association, Republican governors whose states are benefiting from Obamacare, and prominent conservative think tanks have all come out against this approach, saying it’s too risky and threatens to jeopardize too many Americans’ health insurance.

President-elect Donald Trump has also come out against “repeal and delay.” During a little-noticed 60 Minutes interview in November, Trump said that repealing and replacing Obamacare needs to happen simultaneously.

So, slightly positive news, but the real problem lies in the conservatives’ idea of healthcare. Some of their replacement ideas have been truly horrible, and anything they are likely to come up with will amount to red tape nightmare of no practical use. It would be very nice if the incredibly hard of thinking republicans could grok the saying if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Via Think Progress.