For years now, health care has remained stubbornly rooted in the national spotlight. Depending on the shifting perceptions and political headwinds of any given moment, both parties have taken turns scrambling to get in the latest headline-grabbing jab or to mark another tally on their ever-expanding and often exhausting mental scorecards.

A little more than a year ago, I wrote about the GOP's premature celebration in the wake of the passage in the House of an Obamacare replacement bill, complete with hyperbole from the President (“It's going to be unbelievable”) and jeering from House Democrats. Not the finest moment for either party.

More recently, things have been relatively quiet, with both parties temporarily eschewing health care in favor of other priorities for the first time in a long time.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the respite, because as we head into the 2018 midterms, things seems to be ramping up again. A HuffPost/YouGov poll earlier this year found that voters once again consider health care a top issue in the 2018 election.

But this time around, the parties' roles could be reversed. For years, the GOP has largely played the role of Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, jubilantly heckling from the cheap seats as Democrats bore the blame for the cost of health care. But in the coming months, it appears the GOP might have to face the full glare of the spotlight themselves.

As NPR political reporter Danielle Kurtzleben recently wrote, “Four years ago, Republicans went into midterms focused on dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Democrats now believe the health care issue could boost them to victory in November.”

Indeed, a number of recent surveys suggest Republicans may “take the lion's share of the blame, with Democrats viewed more favorably on the issue ahead of November's midterm elections,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Recent special election wins, including Conor Lamb's victory in a Pennsylvania House race earlier this year, provide further evidence that many voters remain unhappy about Republicans' failed efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare last summer.

Only time will tell, of course, but the fact that many carriers are looking to impose double-digit rate increases on ACA marketplaces certainly won't help the Republican cause, either.

Whatever happens next, we've all been watching this long enough to make one solid prediction. The parties will continue to toss the health care hot potato back and forth, intermittently blowing on their own hands or cackling at the other party's temporary discomfort. All the while, Americans will continue to be the ones getting burned.

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Health care hot potato

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