By Dahleen Glanton

Chicago Tribune

After seven years and countless attempts, House Republicans finally voted to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Now that we’ve had a few days to think about it, their success in pushing a new health care bill through Congress might actually be a good thing for America.

Even those of us who loved Obamacare from its inception have had to come to terms with the fact that it is in trouble. Though it’s hard for Democrats to admit it, President Donald Trump was correct when he warned that the Affordable Care Act was “imploding.” And you can be sure that he wasn’t going to do anything to fix it.

With insurance premiums rising, deductibles out of reach and choices more and more limited for many people, something had to be done. And though we might not like what House Speaker Paul Ryan and his crew came up with, it at least gives us a chance for a new start.

Without a doubt, the GOP bill would have serious ramifications for millions of Americans, particularly the poor and elderly, who would either pay higher costs or lose their heath care altogether. It is careless and uncompromising, and in the long run, could end up costing more than an unrepaired Obamacare.

But we all know it is not the legislation that will ultimately make it into law. This is just the first, but necessary, step in a long and complicated journey that could ultimately result in a health care program that most Americans can live with. It is up to us to make sure that happens.

Now that this important issue is out of the hands of inept legislators in the House who have a habit of turning every issue into a partisan tug of war, the Senate can rip it apart and get down to business putting together a bill that is not only sensible but might even end up making us proud.

That would require a bipartisan effort that puts politics aside for once and places the American people at the center of the debate. Such cooperation might seem unlikely in this combative climate, but Americans should accept nothing less.

With the future of our health care system on the line, we have to demand that our elected officials look out for our best interests. We’ll be doing their job evaluations when this is over, and we can send them on their way if they fail to meet our expectations.

There are lots of things about Obamacare that even those who once hated the law eventually came to appreciate. It would serve Senate Republicans well to acknowledge these basic facts:

The nearly 20 million people who now have health insurance because of Obamacare aren’t willing to give it up, nor should they be. But they want things back closer to the way they were in the beginning, when premiums were affordable and deductibles were reasonable.

Americans aren’t willing to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny coverage or charge exorbitant amounts to those of us with pre-existing illnesses. A cancer diagnosis from two years ago shouldn’t automatically become a death sentence tomorrow because of the lack of access to doctors and medications.

We don’t want to run out of insurance coverage. People with chronic illnesses shouldn’t have to suffer once the insurance company reaches the limit it’s willing to spend on a patient.

The poor and elderly should not be denied a chance to live healthy lives. We want our lawmakers to figure out a way to provide financial assistance to those who need it so that income and social status don’t dictate access to health care. Most of us don’t really care how they decide to do it. They can expand Medicare or set up a special fund to pay for it. Just make sure there’s enough money available and that it’s distributed fairly.

We don’t want to pay too much for our prescription drugs. Elderly people shouldn’t have to choose between paying their light bill this month or purchasing their heart medication. And we also want our children to remain on our policies until age 26.

These are the things Obamacare taught us we deserved as Americans. We’ll be unforgiving if they are taken away.

So let’s not spend too much time worrying about what Republicans did in the House last week without any help from Democrats. It would have been nice if both parties could have come together and produced a bill that actually made sense. That could never happen, though, with that group.

But there is a chance in the Senate. Democrats have to understand that Americans want them to fight for the provisions we hold dear, but we’re not looking for them to be obstructionists on this issue. We want Republicans and Democrats to compromise and come up with a health care bill that has the stamp of both parties.

The last thing we need is a repeat of what happened in 2010, when Democrats rammed through the Affordable Care Act despite its obvious flaws. Republicans spent the remainder of Obama’s time in office trying to undermine the bill rather than fixing it. We can’t afford to spend another four years or however long fighting over health care reform. It’s time to put this behind us and move on to other pressing issues.

Regardless of who ends up getting the credit, President Barack Obama laid the groundwork for health care reform in this country.

With so many lives at stake, most Americans don’t care whether the final bill is known as Obamacare or something else. We just want good health insurance.

Dahleen Glanton is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Readers may email her at dglanton@chicagotribune.com.