Republicans have already given up on repealing and replacing Obamacare

The contents of the emerging Senate healthcare bill are the best-kept secret in Washington. Even high-profile senators claim no knowledge of the legislative text, and it isn't even entirely clear who is writing the bill. But one thing is becoming clear: Republicans have already given up on fulfilling their seven-year promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Republicans may not outright say this. In fact, if you ask them, they'll say that they're still working hard to hash out a compromise that delivers on their promise. But at this point, anything that comes out of ongoing negotiations won't be able to plausibly be described as repeal. Last December, I warned conservatives to beware of what I dubbed "RINOcare," or "Repeal In Name Only." And it's now inevitable that this is what conservatives will get – if they get anything at all.

To be clear, there are a number of true-believer conservative lawmakers in both chambers of Congress who would eagerly sign off on a bill to fully repeal Obamacare and replace it with a true free market alternative. But a critical mass of Republicans is either unwilling or unable to challenge the core elements of Obamacare.

As it stands, the House-passed healthcare bill made major concessions to Obamacare. Though true that the bill repealed much of the taxes in Obamacare, it also left the law's regulatory infrastructure intact at the national level, and only allowed for limited waivers for states from some of the law's costly mandates. It delayed until the year of the next presidential election any roll back of the law's Medicaid expansion and subsidies. And then it replaced Obamacare's tax credit subsidy scheme with a new tax credit subsidy scheme.

Though the contents of the Senate bill remain shrouded in mystery, every indication is that it will preserve even more of Obamacare than the House bill does.