Unless President Trump wants to preside over the continued unraveling of health insurance markets, he will have to end his Obamacare sabotage campaign. That means he and Congress will have to permanently fund the cost-sharing subsidies they have threatened to eliminate, uncertainty about which has sent insurance markets into a tizzy. The Trump administration will also have to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate, which requires everyone to carry health-care coverage and underpins the law’s policy structure, a crucial step to restoring health to the markets.

Republicans outside the administration will have an obligation to act, too. GOP leaders in states that have rejected the Obamacare Medicaid expansion have even less reason to hold out. If the expansion is not going away, they should cover their people with the money the federal government has raised for the purpose. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress can do what they should have done months ago — actually, years ago. That is, sit down with Democrats and agree on a package of fixes and enhancements to the Affordable Care Act. Many in each party could probably agree on a package that creates reinsurance programs to drive down premiums, fully funds Obamacare subsidies, repeals the mandate on employers to provide health-care insurance and offers states more flexibility to experiment with health-care policies within their borders.

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Trump has shown little capacity to learn and change, but this should be a lesson for his still-young administration. People care about more than just winning. They also care about how they win and what they gain in winning. Passing a bad health-care bill for the sake of passing any health-care bill failed. Policy matters. Details matter. Getting them wrong harms people. The president consistently showed little grasp of health-care policy basics. He could not credibly explain to lawmakers or to regular Americans what the GOP health-care bill would do, because he did not know. He could not respond to legitimate policy criticisms. His disinterest in a bill that could have resulted in a great deal of human suffering was an insult to the office he holds. Refusing to improve from here would only compound the affront.