Scrap Obamacare, Keep ACA. This sentiment echoed around the United States, despite the fact that Obamacare and the ACA are synonymous.

Ever since President Obama signed the ACA into law in 2010, Republicans have been nipping at its heels to “repeal and replace” the legislation. However, the first real chance they had at repealing it failed mightily, as Republican leadership could not muster enough votes to repeal and replace it with their own health-care policy.

The Republicans are trapped because they promised to repeal the ACA, but that did not occur, in part, because many of their constituents actually love many aspects of the ACA. Of course, these same people often adamantly oppose “Obamacare” simply because they feel that the two are different programs which, in fact, they are not.

Repealing and revising the ACA was a tool Republicans used as a rallying cry to their base and, after years of promises and dogged attempts, they failed to coalesce behind a bill. The problem is, Americans seem to love many of the provisions in the ACA even if they disliked the man whom it is named after.
Obamacare is an individual-mandate system and, while it’s far from perfect, it has helped millions of Americans get health insurance, which means some 20-million Americans got to see a doctor they otherwise could not afford. Obamacare also ensured that people did not get kicked off their insurance plans because they had a pre-existing condition like cancer or Lupus.

These provisions get overwhelming support from Americans across the board and, in a nonpartisan world, a full repeal of the ACA would, be career suicide for anyone who fought for it, but we don’t live in such a world so the Republican party promised a full repeal of Obamacare (again, just a synonym for the ACA). This leads to one question: Why did so many Americans support a full repeal of Obamacare?
The answer to this question reveals the struggle and fight that still occurs in America today; the fight not only for proper information for the American public, but also an awareness of the racial undertones and partisan lines that led people into believing that Obamacare was bad simply because President Obama was bad and could not have come up with a good idea.

These lines in the sand seem to ignore the fact that the ACA is merely a more polished version of a bill Republicans like Richard Nixon tried to pass in 1974, and one that Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa tried to push through the Senate in the 1990’s alongside former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, although Grassley and Gingrich are now in opposition to the ACA.

After seven years of promising to repeal it, the Republicans now realize that Americans like having affordable health insurance, as Americans came out in droves to support the ACA, which forced Republicans to create a hodge-podge bill that did nothing to stem the rising premiums, but instead reduced funding for Obamacare and gave the wealthiest 2%, about $280 billion in tax breaks.
After the GOP’s failed attempt to repeal and replace, the most politically savvy option would be to provide incentives for pharmaceutical companies to make drugs affordable and stem price gouging, and also reduce ever-rising premiums. However, as this is the GOP, what will most likely happen is the GOP will refuse to fund Obamacare and try to force it to become obsolete.