Obamacare is collapsing. Republicans should let it

Twenty years ago, I wrote my first book with the late Bishop Harry Jackson, Personal Faith: Public Policy. Among the major issues we examined were immigration and health care. And here we are — two decades later — still listening to the same debates. Some issues in Washington are like that proverbial leaking roof: everyone knows it needs fixing, and every storm reminds us of the problem. But instead of grabbing a ladder and repairing it, the buckets just get moved around.

The current storm was created when Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer used the manufactured COVID-19 crisis as cover to spend billions more taxpayer dollars to prop up the failing Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Many predicted this back in 2010, when Nancy Pelosi famously declared, “We have to pass it so we can read it,” as she pushed it through Congress without a single Republican vote. The so-called Affordable Care Act quickly became what many warned it would become — the unaffordable care act.

Democrats doubled down in March 2021 and again in August 2022, passing the American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, again without a single Republican vote. The first bill created temporary subsidies to mask the ACA’s structural failures, and the second extended this bailout until December 2025. Not only has the Affordable Care Act proven unaffordable — contrary to President Obama’s promises — it was deliberately crafted to bypass the longstanding bipartisan Hyde Amendment, which kept taxpayers out of the abortion business.

That brings us to the present dilemma for Republicans, who now find themselves the property managers of this leaking roof. They have inherited a failed, government-driven health system that funds abortion and pays for controversial experimental drugs and surgeries used in gender transitions.

This past week, Senate Republicans put forward a partial fix — one that would have removed taxpayers from the abortion business while providing a temporary extension of subsidies to avoid immediate disruption, giving Congress time to address the deeper problems in the ACA. Democrats rejected it. Why? Abortion.

Democrats then put forward their own plan — preserving abortion funding and the broken system beneath it. It also failed. Why? Again, abortion. Republicans have never supported the ACA or its subsidies, and despite media pressure, they should not suddenly vote to preserve a system they know is failing, becoming co-owners with the Democrats who built it.

In the coming week, the House will have the opportunity to advance real reforms — reforms that can make health coverage affordable again and finally end the falsehood that abortion is health care. They can put taxpayers out of partnership with abortion providers once and for all.