Democrats are welcoming the GOP's continued efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare because of the benefits they feel it could provide to the left for the 2018 midterm elections.
Politico reported that members of the Democratic Party believe the ongoing healthcare debate is helping them as they seek to take back control of at least one of the legislative chambers next year.
"I think they are falling into an enormous trap of their own making. And have at it," Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told Politico. "I think they're going to pay a very heavy price for this."
Republicans promised for years to repeal and replace the Obamacare law if a Republican won the 2016 presidential election. Since President Donald Trump has taken office, however, the party has been unable to pass healthcare reform in the Senate.
Concerns about the coverage of pre-existing conditions, caps on coverage, and the number of people who could lose their insurance plans have turned off enough Republican lawmakers that multiple efforts to pass replacement legislation have fallen short.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Tyler Law said healthcare will remain the top issue for the foreseeable future.
"This issue is going to remain front and center because it's so personal," Law said, according to Politico. "And I would also add it's going to be front and center because Republicans are stubbornly saying, 'We are going to continue over and over again to try and take your healthcare away.'"
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Jesse Hunt pushed back on that, saying Democrats' "embrace of single-payer healthcare has ensured that their unabashed loyalty to the progressive base, at the expense of working class families, will be the defining issue of this cycle."
The Senate's latest attempt to pass healthcare legislation never got to a vote because the bill, offered up by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., lost the support of a handful of Republicans.