For more than a decade, Republicans have tossed around various ideas to replace or reform the misnamed Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, and actually reduce healthcare costs for most Americans, only for those ideas to be immediately denigrated and dismissed by Democrats and the media.

That same scenario is playing out once again after Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), the GOP vice presidential nominee, floated the idea of saving money for most healthy Americans by moving chronically ill Americans to a separate health insurance coverage pool, according to The Washington Post.

The idea was predictably ripped apart by the partisan media and pounced upon by Democrats who are anxious to battle it out over healthcare, as it is an issue they feel they have an advantage on with the general public.

Obamacare subsidizes the high-risk with higher premiums on the low-risk

One of the key tenets of Obamacare, per The Post, was grouping everybody together in one health insurance coverage pool as a way to ensure that individuals with chronic illnesses or pre-existing conditions wouldn't be denied coverage or have to pay exorbitant costs, as their more expensive needs were subsidized by higher premiums for unnecessarily extensive coverage paid for by healthy individuals.

Sen. Vance's idea, which is something of a return to the pre-Obamacare era, would seek to move the chronically ill with pre-existing coverage to a separate high-risk pool while still guaranteeing coverage, which would have the effect of reducing costs for generally healthy younger Americans who'd no longer be forced to subsidize their generally older counterparts.

An unfortunate drawback of that, however, which Obamacare sought to rectify by lumping everybody together, is that while younger and healthier Americans would pay relatively little for suitable coverage, those who are older and sicker and at higher risk would pay more expensive premiums unless those higher costs are covered by some sort of subsidy.

Separating the chronically ill from the healthy

The Ohio senator previously referenced the idea last Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," when he said, "Think about it: a young American doesn't have the same health care needs as a 65-year-old American. A 65-year-old American in good health has much different health care needs than a 65-year-old American with a chronic condition."

"And we want to make sure everybody is covered," he added. "But the best way to do that is to actually promote some more choice in our health care system and not have a one-size-fits-all approach that puts a lot of people into the same insurance pools, into the same risk pools, that actually makes it harder for people to make the right choices for their families."

The idea was said to be part of former President Donald Trump's broader plan to reform Obamacare, which Vance said, "Is actually quite straightforward, is you want to make sure that preexisting coverage -- conditions are covered, you want to make sure that people have access to the doctors that they need, and you also want to implement some deregulatory agenda so that people can choose a health care plan that fits them."

Democrats pounce

The Hill reported that Democrats were "eager" to engage in a policy fight with Sen. Vance and the Trump campaign over healthcare, given that it is an issue on which they have generally been perceived as the winners for the past several election cycles.

Indeed, after numerous failed efforts by Republicans to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, and with the law's popularity steadily rising in polls over the years, Democrats have gron increasingly confident that their way is not just the best but also the only way, and they are quick to disparage and dismiss any ideas that are different.

"There should be no doubt about Donald Trump’s commitment to end the Affordable Care Act -- he and House Republicans tried doing it over 60 times," a spokesman for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign said. "Now, one of the 'concepts' he’s bringing back is his plan to rip away protections for pre-existing conditions, throw millions off their health care, and drive up costs for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions."

Just want to make health care more affordable for more people

That, of course, is not what Sen. Vance or the Trump campaign proposed, and a spokesperson for the senator told The Post, "Senator Vance was simply talking about the significant improvements President Trump made to the Affordable Care Act through his deregulatory approach, which aimed to bring down the cost of premiums while ensuring coverage for pre-existing conditions."

Likewise, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign said the senator and former president were aligned on the healthcare issue and told the outlet, "Senator Vance and President Trump share the underlying principles of using more choice in the marketplace and efficiency as tools for better, more affordable health care."