Dear Dr. Democrat,

Republicans have been chomping at the bit to kill Obamacare forever. But now that they’re ready to do it, they don’t have a clue how to replace it.

What gives?

Signed,

Worried in Weehawken

Dear Worried:

You’re right to to wonder and be worried, Weehawken. The GOP has had six years to come up with a replacement plan for Obamacare. The reason they have no plan now is simple: The ACA is the GOP health reform plan.

It was developed by the right-wing Heritage Foundation “think” tank in the 1980s and first rolled out by conservative Republican Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.

In 2008, Pres. Obama chose to go with the Republican plan, which is based on individual mandates that require everyone to participate in the insurance market, rather than a plan his supporters would have preferred — some version of single-payer — because he wanted bipartisan consensus on a healthcare reform law that Vice Pres. Joe Biden aptly described as a “big fucking deal.”

Instead, the GOP used Obamacare as a wedge issue politically, inventing scare tactics like death panels and healthcare rationing, in order to obstruct the president’s agenda and thus further their own political interests. As political gutter ball, it worked like a charm. By ginning up hatred and fear of Obamacare gave Republicans control of state legislatures in 2010, just in time to redistrict the U.S. House in their favor.

In 2016, giant health insurance corporations raised their premiums, which Republicans falsely blamed on Obamacare, thus helping elect Donald Trump.

Now Donald and his minions in Congress have a yuge problem. They will repeal the ACA within the next few days. But, because they have no replacement plan, chaos will almost undoubtedly ensue.

What they will do then is anyone guess.

Connect: