When Speaker Paul Ryan announced nearly two weeks ago that he did not have the votes to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Democrats let out a long sigh of relief.
That relief was only temporary, however.
Not only is President Trump continuing to meet with conservative Republicans in an attempt to craft a new repeal bill, but he has ominously predicted that the ACA will "implode," leaving some to believe that he will use his vast administrative powers to sabotage the law.
Trump appeared to forgo his first major opportunity to inflict severe damage on the law Monday, when his administration announced that it would continue to make payments to insurers that have been challenged in a still-pending lawsuit by House Republicans.
GOP leaders in the House have also said they want the payments to continue, regardless of whether the suit, which they filed against the Obama administration, ultimately succeeds.
But that is hardly enough to assuage the concerns of Democrats, who are worried that the administration could undermine the law through more subtle methods, including simply by injecting uncertainty into the insurance market and provoking more insurers to abandon the ACA marketplace.
"We cannot work together on common-sense reforms without a strong commitment from your administration to do no further harm and to halt efforts that have already begun to undermine access to affordable coverage," says a letter authored by a group of five Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Suffice it to say, Democrats are not buying Trump's stated interest in working with Democrats on a health care compromise. Indeed, his much-publicized golf outing with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., after which the conservative hardliner claimed the two had come closer to reaching a deal on health care, sent the opposite signal.
Democrats' goal is to mobilize public pressure against any moves that the administration or Congress could take to hamper the ACA. Their hope is that that will save the ACA or, at the very least, that voters will blame Trump and his party if the ACA market collapses.
The minority party appears to be in a strong position on the matter. Support for the ACA is at an all-time high, hovering above 50 percent in many opinion polls, while support for the Trump-backed repeal bill stood at a miserly 17 percent.
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