Sohn: The incredible shrinking ACA repeal effort

The cry to repeal Obamacare is yesterday's news.

The call to save and fix Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, is the trending new topic of the day - no matter how many other ways President Donald Trump tries to say it isn't so.

The reason is simple: 20 million more people have insurance today than had insurance before the ACA was passed in 2010 and implemented. And 20 million people - along with the other people who love those 20 million - have a lot of clout.

On Monday, Trump told the nation's governors: "I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

Really?

Americans knew, Mr. President.

That's why a dozen new polls since January have shown Obamacare is more popular than ever with the American people. And now, with Trump and the GOP still largely crying for repeal, American voters like Obamacare more than ever.

A new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds the highest level of favorability toward the ACA in more than 60 tracking polls run since 2010: 48 percent of voters reported support for the law, while 42 percent of those surveyed had an unfavorable opinion.

A new Pew Research Center poll also finds support for the ACA at its highest level on record: 54 percent approve of the health care law, while 43 percent disapprove.

What's more, people (even most of those who don't favor Obamacare) especially don't want to see it repealed without seeing the details of a replacement.

The same is true even in the very red state of Tennessee.

A new poll from Middle Tennessee State University finds that 61 percent of Tennessee voters said they had an unfavorable view of the ACA and 60 percent wanted it repealed - but in a separate question, 67 percent of those wanting a repeal said they wanted to see details of a replacement plan first.

In other words, repeal and replace may be OK - but repeal without a replacement is not.

In the national polls and in the state poll, overall favorability was largely in the partisan eyes of the beholders. Democrats and independents were far less likely to favor repeal than Republicans.

What's more, as Congress edges toward an ACA showdown, a new Morning Consult/Politico poll shows voters say they have more confidence in the Democrats in Congress to handle health care, Medicaid, energy, the environment, Social Security and Medicare than they do in the Republicans in Congress. (Conversely, those same voters trust Republicans more on jobs, the economy, immigration and technology.)

Trump waved off all those polls about the Affordable Care Act. (What, now the feelings of Americans are fake news?)

"People hate it," Trump said, making up his own version of reality.

But the governors he spoke to Monday knew exactly where they stand. Both Democrat and Republican governors called for any ACA replacement to cover all the people in their states already benefiting from the law most of us now call Obamacare.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, the Republican governor of Nevada, where about 300,000 people have gained Medicaid coverage, told reporters: "Of course I am concerned. I am someone who elected to expand Medicaid. That's been very beneficial to my state, and I want to be sure those individuals can keep their coverage."

Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said, "Governors are all in agreement. We do not want one single one of our citizens to lose access to quality health care. We are all unified on that. Actually, we want to expand, so everybody has access to quality health care."

Republicans had the luxury for the last seven years of just opposing it - not fixing it. Now they have real pressure. They have spent so long promising repeal that failure would make them seem weak and leave them vulnerable to primary challenges.

On the other hand, they are caught now with no plans for repair or replace. And they are faced with 20 million Americans (and voters) that they can't just dump off the plan. If they do dump those Americans - then the "disaster" as Trump likes to call it - will suddenly be owned by Trump and the GOP.

There you have it: For the GOP, it has never been about getting more Americans insured so they would have affordable access to health care. For seven years, it was, and still is, just about politics.

Anything else is "an unbelievably complex subject," as Trump at last acknowledged Monday.