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This approach involves using the version of the GOP health plan passed by the House in May, the American Health Care Act, as the vehicle for a Senate vote on the repeal-only measure. The amendment McConnell is talking about wouldn’t fully repeal Obamacare, as that would require 60 votes, and there are only 52 Republican senators. Instead, as The Hill explains, it would damage Obamacare as much as possible under the reconciliation process, which only takes 50 votes:
"The measure guts the law by repealing authority for the federal government to run healthcare exchanges, and scrapping subsidies to help people afford plans bought through those exchanges. It zeros out the penalties on individuals who do not buy insurance and employers who do not offer health insurance."
The idea is that once Republicans start the clock on turning Obamacare into an actual “failure” (which conveniently, will take place after the midterms), they can force a few Democrats to go along with the amazing GOP replacement plan (which they haven’t come up with yet).
As McConnell notes, Republicans already used this process to pass an Obamacare repeal bill, and only two GOP senators – Susan Collins and Mark Kirk – were opposed. However, that was back in 2015, when Republicans knew Obama would just use his veto to save his signature health law.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/trumpcare-as-we-know-it-is-dead.html
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so the hope is that enough Republican senators will continue to realise how destructive repeal would be, both the people and to their chances of re-election:
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