Passing skinny repeal would have:
1. Immediately caused a pullout of payers in the exchanges, and
2. Triggered a “crisis” that would need massive subsidies to keep the exchanges afloat.
The Repubs would have essentially taken away healthcare from millions and then passed a tremendous spending bill to “save Obamacare.”
How do you think THAT would have played in 2018?
If anything, McCain likely did them a favor here.
They can still run on a half-assed, “We need more Senators and Reps to repeal Obamacare” platform.
I think the purpose of skinny repeal was to get something passed so that they could conference with the house and then come up with the real, final bill. That begs the question as to whether they could get passage when the conference bill came back.
I am not accepting your premises, just noting that a skinny bill didn’t mean it was going to be final.