The big thing about the ACA credits that were approved during the pandemic was that small businesses and self-employed found them incredibly useful. Now that was not what they were originally for, but it has been an unexpected success. It has increased the risk pool and provided the ability for job creators to have insurance for themselves or their employees.
Republicans have seen this success and for the most obvious reasons are looking to end it, because any success by ACA threatens their narrative of the ACA being a failure.
This is a typical example of the different standards applied to Republican and Democratic initiatives.
Even the weakest Democratic compromise on healthcare reform has to have a specific plan and measures of success and meet them exactly, and even then have to overcome GOP propaganda to succeed - unexpected success like what you reference won’t be counted or acknowledged.
On the other side, Republican initiatives can be nebulous and philosophically-based, to the point of delusion. Their policy to hand trillions over the last 30 years in tax benefits, subsidies and contracts to rich people and companies, not only on just the presumption they will stimulate growth, but despite evidence to the contrary, just persist based on nothing but dogma. Their healthcare plan is “no,” which is objectively the plan nobody can say is likely to succeed.
Yet somehow people give both similar attention and credibility.
