We called it. In the Schumer Shutdown’s early days – and the wake of The Orange Colossus’s mind-boggling, historic “script flip” in the Middle East – these pages suggested that he could do the same for health care.

Specifically, a solution to both the congressional impasse and the fiscal, financial, and disaster of Obamacare:

Institute a refundable, health care tax credit for a combination of capitated care with independent provider practices and true, catastrophic insurance – once called ‘hospitalization.’

The capped tax credit would cover all-you-can-eat preventive and basic care plans – much of which could be handled by physician assistants – for individuals or families. …

Voila! Take down the greedy big guys – whom the Democrats purport to hate anyway. Instantly free up trillions in middleman costs and diverted employee compensation.

Re-empower small providers and patients – even, and especially – low-income patients chronically underserved by a fraud-ridden Medicaid establishment.

And lo and behold, the president has indeed followed this script in a Truth Social post:

Wriggle out of that trap, Chucky and Sombrero Man.

What? You want to become the defenders of the very symbols of “corporate greed” and “large conglomerates” your flag-bearers love to hate? At the expense of overcharged, underserviced low- and middle-income health-care consumers for whom you’re claiming to “fight?”

Help yourselves!

Still, as with the slippery Gaza deal that barbarous Hamas butchers are working overtime to sabotage, the devil is in the details – which currently are sketchy at best.

A trio of Senate Republicans in particular leapt onto the Trump transformation train. Lindsey Graham, who once co-authored a complex Obamacare replacement bill, termed the chief executive’s general notion “brilliant,” while offering no specifics as of yet.

But Bill Cassidy, a physician, and Rick Scott, a (somewhat disgraced) former hospital chain honcho, immediately pulled out the standard Republican Health Savings Account (HSA) playbook. Cassidy touted his Prefunded Flexible Spending Accounts covering health expenses. Scott proclaimed that he was already writing a bill that would give dollars “directly to Americans in HSA-style accounts and let them buy the health care they want.”

However, the Guardian was swift to dash cold water: “None of the Republican senators seemed to grapple with the fact that consumers would still need to buy plans from the same insurance companies … and the idea of repealing and replacing Obamacare with savings accounts is unlikely to earn a single Democratic vote.”

So why might a refundable tax credit scheme be more acceptable – and workable? Three Bs:

Branding. The Guardian is right: HSAs are a fully GOP-branded concept. Whereas refundable credits represent a familiar funding mechanism for low-income families with dependents, one therefore more palatable to Democrats, thanks to the refundable portion of the child tax credit.

Bureaucracy. What? Replace one inefficient, expensive mechanism with another to oversee distribution of funds? The IRS is already in place (to the otherwise eternal horror of your correspondent) and well-versed with tax credits. It’s another line on the 1040 EZ.

Bundling. It’s a bit paternalistic, but requiring and financing direct contracts between patients and provider groups for capitated care – fixed monthly payments for all-you-can-eat basic care – covering each family member would cut costs while maximizing access.

This basic care – combined with catastrophic insurance to cover emergencies and hospitalization – could largely be provided by physician assistants and nurse practitioners without diluting quality. One allowance could be adjusted for geographic differences. Those desiring more expansive coverage can pay cash out of their own pockets.

The key: clear plans of the ridiculous “essential benefits” bells and whistles in Obamacare, such as maternity care for older Americans, while perhaps including such benefits for additional monthly fees.

It’s worth reviewing some history here. Migrating the tax exclusion for employees (not available to the self- or unemployed) and tax deductions for employers to credits for individuals isn’t a new idea.

Presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 suggested a similar approach, though the Arizonan’s plan did not include the capitated feature but assumed people would continue to buy “insurance” plans.

What happened? Although even some liberal analysts saw merit in McCain’s tax shift, Barack Obama outrageously termed it a tax hike and repeated the vicious lie ad nauseam. In October 2008, Politico estimated that Obama had aired almost 192,000 commercials on health care, burying McCain’s 11,300.

Meanwhile, Obama famously promised to reduce premiums $2,500 a year for families and that “if you like your plan, you can keep it” – later named Politifact’s “lie of the year.”

Coda: Your correspondent asked McCain at a conservative gathering during the Obamacare debate why he didn’t reintroduce his plan as a counterproposal. He replied wistfully, “It’s complicated,” and his voice trailed off. Translation: the “straight-talking” war hero wasn’t climbing out on that limb again to have it similarly sawed off.

Eight years later, the maverick McCain was the deciding vote to rescue Obamacare – to spite the president who had openly insulted him on the campaign trail.

And here we are. Can Trump, with his superb table turn on the Democrats, push the GOP to get health care right this time?

Bob Maistros, a regular contributor to Issues & Insights, is a messaging and communications strategist, crisis specialist, and former political speechwriter. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.