Fortunately, the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) failed last week. Opponents of this reprehensible Act should hold their celebration, as the primary reason it failed is not good news for its opponents.
The key features of the Republican plan (the AHCA) to replace the ACA was to cut Medicaid and provide that money as tax cuts for the wealthy, thus causing 24 million people to be without medical insurance. However, these horrible aspects of the AHCA are not why it failed. Instead, it failed because of the ultra-conservative wing of the Republicans in the Congress, the three dozen or so members of the so-called Freedom Caucus. They were against the Republican plan because in their view it does not go far enough in abolishing Obamacare (ACA). They object to the federal government subsidizing any of the medical care insurance coverage.
In blocking the passage of the revolting AHCA, the most conservative of the Republicans in Congress continued a tradition–a tradition of opposing taxpayer support of social programs. Another reason for not exulting over the defeat of the AHCA last week is these ultra-conservatives may be convinced to drop their opposition and let Speaker Ryan and President Trump prevail in passing the AHCA. To get these ultra-conservatives on board with the AHCA it is extremely likely that Ryan will have to make more changes, and any change that will satisfy the Freedom Caucus group will make the AHCA even worse for ordinary citizens. Not a good option.