As we know, what came to be known as Obamacare had its intellectual roots in the bowels of the Republican Party. The GOP ultimately turned on it, however, for the following reasons:
- Anything supported by Obama, by definition, had to be bad;
- The individual mandate to purchase private insurance was viewed as an inappropriate and unconstitutional intrusion on personal liberty; and
- The redistribution of wealth inherent in the subsidies, community rating, and Medicaid expansion were anathema to CLs and Reactionaries.
The GOP has addressed #2 in the tax bill. In doing so without repealing the rest of the program, however, they have placed additional burdens, not on the undeserving poor, but on old and relatively affluent people who do not qualify for Medicaid or for subsidies. It will also be more difficult for them to repeal the rest of the program without the individual mandate as a lightning rod.
And so, by accomplishing one of their objectives, the GOP has made accomplishing the other two much more difficult, and has increased costs for people who disproportionately vote Republican. Nice going, guys.