Ryan also suggested on the call that he saw the decision to pull the AHCA as a way to bring down the level of intra-party tension before things reached a point of no return:

Ryan promised he would lay out “the path forward on health care” at a retreat scheduled for the end of this week.

Even before the bill was pulled last week there were hints that President Trump thought it might be better politically to let Obamacare continue to collapse on its own. Last week he tweeted that the law would “explode.”

The law is certainly not working out as supporters promised but it could stabilize at a lower enrollment level as a kind of partial entitlement. Simply put, the millions of people getting a mostly free ride on their insurance will continue to take that ride regardless how much it costs the taxpayers. But there are things the Trump administration can do to change the dynamic, starting with reduced enforcement of the individual mandate penalty and cutting off cost-sharing payments. That still won’t kill Obamacare but it will make it increasingly clear, as enrollment drops, that the law is not thriving.