Moving into the first home you own is filled with meaning and emotion. There is that sense of promise, and a passion to make everything just the way you want it. There is some fear—so much can go wrong with a house. The overall experience is both empowering and daunting. People moving into rentals typically don’t have the same highs or lows. After all, it’s just a rental.

After the March 24 failure to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, Republicans are throwing blame and some are moving on to other areas, like tax policy. Some Democrats are gloating. Some are preparing offensively or defensively for the next attack—on health care or something else. These are partisan and human reactions. None of them is surprising.

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Our sense is that March 24 was really the settlement day for our new health care home. We signed a bunch of papers back on March 23, 2010 when the Affordable Care Act became law. We met all the inspection and mortgage contingencies on June 28, 2012 when the Supreme Court weighed in. But it wasn’t until March 24, 2017 when we settled. Now the Affordable Care Act is ours.

Not everyone picked it. Not everyone likes it. But it is ours now. It’s no longer a rental.

When it’s a rental, you don’t fuss over that sink in the bathroom with the rust stains, or the countertops with the scratches, or the way the floor sags in that corner at the entryway. You live with the fact that it’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. You make do.

We have an opportunity now to fix up the home we all share. States that have been holding out on Medicaid expansion have little reason not to move in now. What could hold them back at this point? Why would they stay in their own rentals?

We’re not so naïve to think we are all just going to get together and live in this shared house like the Brady Bunch—particularly when Dad, Mike Brady, was the architect. But wouldn’t that be great? Wouldn’t it be great if we all got together and decided that since we are all living here, we should fix the boiler and replace the sink? Yes, it’s true, we own a fixer-upper. But it’s ours. The alternative to fixing it up is not fixing it up.

The winning move here can come from the Democrats. If they can get past the gloating, they can offer some opportunities to fix the problems all can see. There is work to be done with the mandate and the marketplace, and we need new efforts toward value enhancement and cost control. Some of these are big repairs. Democratic initiatives at this point in time could have substantive meaning.

Maybe it will happen. Regardless, the health policy community can redirect itself from either attacking or defending the Affordable Care Act because that’s not the issue anymore. Instead, that community can help us all think of ways to make it better. It’s worth fixing. After all, it’s no longer a rental.