Taking a page from a Chuck Palahniuk novel, Republicans are eyeing another effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act if they win the midterm elections — even as candidates on the campaign trail keep those plans under wraps.
As Axios reports, “many Republicans” believe they will once again try to repeal and replace the ACA, colloquially referred to as “Obamacare” — despite the party’s previous failed efforts to overturn the legislation and polling that shows support for Obamacare at an all-time high.
“Repeal is like Fight Club,” one GOP operative told Axios’ Caitlin Owens. “First rule is not to talk about it.”
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted against last year’s repeal of ACA, said future efforts are “all in the numbers.”
“If you had a significant enough shift in the Senate and you came up with a replacement that really did generate a level of support,” Murkowski said she would vote for an ACA repeal.
One such effort, a senior GOP aide said, could involve targeting Democratic states.
“Don’t make it a cutting Medicaid exercise,” the aide told Owens. “Make it a ‘screw the blue states’ exercise and block grant to states with normal Medicaid growth, and you win.”