Spoiler alert.

Senate Republicans’ “skinny repeal” plan has been tried before by several different states, and while we hate to spoil the ending, it didn’t expand coverage or lower costs. In fact, it did just the opposite, with premiums going up and consumers left with fewer options. A quick look back from NPR:

“Betting that thin is in — and might be the only way forward — Senate Republicans are eyeing a ‘skinny repeal’ that would roll back an unpopular portion of the federal health law. But health policy analysts warn that the idea has been tried before, and with little success.”

So what happened when this was tried before?

“By the late 1990s, states such as Washington, Kentucky and Massachusetts felt a backlash when some of the coverage requirement rules they'd previously put on the individual market were lifted. ‘Things went badly,’ said Mark Hall, director of the health law and policy program at Wake Forest University.”

“Premiums rose and insurers fled these states, leaving consumers who buy their own coverage (usually because they don't get it through their jobs) with fewer choices and higher prices.”

“That goes to a basic concept about any kind insurance: People who don't file claims in any given year subsidize those who do. Also, those healthy people are less likely to sign up, insurers said, and that leaves insurance companies with only the more costly policyholders.”

“Bottom line: Insurers end up ‘less willing to participate in the market.’”