Try fixing Obamacare

It’s now pretty clear that President Donald Trump and our Republican congressmen had no idea how hard it was going to be to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Each attempt made no sense and was very unpopular with the vast majority of citizens.

So perhaps it is time to try a different approach that has proven to be effective when the need arises to change laws that are already on the books.

Why not identify the specific problems with the ACA and work together — Republicans, Democrats and the president — and adopt a new slogan: “Repair and revise?”

This is the way many of our current laws, such as the income tax laws, the Social Security Act and the Clean Water Act, have been improved over time.

A few years after most of our major laws were passed, it became apparent that improvements were needed. The democratic process enabled these laws to be revised and repaired (sometimes several times) as our nation’s needs changed. Let’s quit bickering about the ACA and make what is already the law of the land work better.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Try fixing Obamacare."