The Free Press, Mankato

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The early Friday morning drama on the Senate floor — Sen. John McCain thrusting his thumb down in front of a glum majority leader — appears to have put an end to seven years of Republican promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

What happens next is uncertain. President Donald Trump claims the ACA, or “Obamacare,” will collapse on its own; he suggested in a tweet Saturday that he will actively attempt to make that happen. Some conservative Republicans still believe a repeal bill can be passed after the August recess. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader whose top-down approach to the legislation was part of its failure in the Senate, appears ready to move on to other issues.

There are two aspects to this: policy and politics. And if good policy is good politics, there is work to be done.

Start with this basic fact: The ACA is not collapsing, but it is flawed. The insurance marketplaces, particularly in rural America, need to be buttressed. More than three dozen U.S. counties on the federal exchanges may lack an insurer next year and premiums on the individual market are rising.

It is unclear, as the Aug. 16 deadline for insurers to set rates for 2018 nears, if Congress and the administration will commit to providing the billions of dollars in cost-sharing reduction payments that help offset low-income consumers’ out-of-pocket costs under the ACA’s individual market. We do know that Trump has repeatedly suggested that he hopes the market collapses.

Trump appears to imagine that the public will blame the Democrats in such a scenario. Inasmuch as the Republicans control both houses of Congress plus the presidency, it’s difficult to see how the GOP could escape the blame for such a fiasco.

Congressional Democrats so far have been on the sidelines, partly because their primary goal has been the preservation of the ACA and that has been accomplished by the GOP’s infighting, and partly because the Republicans have not wanted their participation. (McConnell decried on Friday morning the lack of “cooperation” by the minority, but his definition of “cooperation” appears to be surrender.)

But now it’s time for the Democrats to put forth proposals to address the ACA’s problems. As the minority party, they lack the power to pass such legislation or even to force committee hearings. But if they put forth realistic proposals and the Republicans simply bury them, it will underscore the majority’s unwillingness, or incapacity, to govern.

And if both sides work together, the problems in the markets can be solved, the public will benefit and the voters, for once, will have reason to think kindly of Congress.