Don’t call it Obamacare. President Barack Obama served his country and quietly left office.

The Affordable Care Act survives as the legacy of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He led the charge against repealing the law in July and pledges to defeat another repeal this month.

He won’t let anyone stop the failed health care law, so long as the left rewards him for defending it. He offers no ideas for improving access and lowering costs.

Call the failed system McCain Care, after a man who values media adoration above all.

McCain was in a political dogfight last fall for what would become his sixth consecutive six-year term.

Just as the November election reached the final stretch last October, the Department of Health and Human Services announced staggering Obamacare premium hikes averaging 25 percent for midlevel benchmark plans. The report said 1 in 5 Obamacare consumers would have only one plan to choose from.

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For Arizona, the news was much worse. Hit hardest by Obamacare, the government said monthly premiums for a typical Arizona 20-something with a benchmark “silver” plan would increase 116 percent in 2017. The price would go from $196 to $422.

No one was quicker to feign outrage than McCain, who needed to win an election. He angrily called the Affordable Care Act a “failure.” He pledged to lead an effort to repeal the law in the coming congressional session.

“Arizona families are demanding affordability, accessibility and choice when it comes to their health care — not the expensive, restrictive and poor quality care that has been forced upon them by Obamacare,” McCain said.

The senator sanctioned a TV ad with a voiceover and written text that said “John McCain is leading the fight to STOP Obamacare.” The ad ended with “I’m John McCain and I approved this message.”

After winning re-election as the man who would in all caps “STOP” Obamacare, McCain returned to his role as the media’s go-to anti-conservative “Republican.”

He marched onto the Senate floor July 27 to make a pronounced thumbs-down spectacle when voting against an Obamacare repeal bill President Donald Trump promised to sign. With McCain it would pass; without him it would fail.

Liberal MSNBC anchor Brian Williams gushed, calling McCain a “profile in courage.” Liberal MSNBC correspondent Kasie Hunt credited McCain’s vote to his “long legacy as a war hero.” Less creative pundits rolled out “the maverick” moniker while looping video of McCain’s “thumbs down” protest of repeal.

Swarmed by media after the vote, McCain did not exude the body language of someone who had made an agonizing decision to betray a promise. He smirked like a man basking in a hero’s parade, sorry for nothing.

The Affordable Care act hurts people, in a manner best described by working-class advocate and former President Bill Clinton.

“You’ve got this crazy system where all the sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Clinton said in October. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”

That was only days before McCain learned premiums would more than double for his constituents.

At 81, “the maverick” probably won’t seek another term. In Washington, 2,300 miles from Phoenix, McCain cares more about the media’s crush on him than the constituents he blatantly deceived.

When premiums double again, don’t blame Obama. Call it McCain Care, for the Republican who led a fight to sustain it.

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(c)2017 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

Visit The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) at www.gazette.com

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