The Obama administration’s expansion of Medicaid was a rare strengthening of an otherwise battered safety net. Obamacare, for all of its failures, expanded the health insurance program to cover millions of Americans.

It would have counted many more beneficiaries had Republican governors around the country, abetted by the Supreme Court, not callously refused to expand coverage to poor, working-class people in their states. They did that in order to take a shot against Obama and model austere libertarian virtue for primary voters and right-wing donors.

Medicaid expansion, it turned out, saved Obamacare from repeal. Obviously, there’s a lot to hate about Obamacare, which requires people to buy health insurance from private companies and doesn’t even provide them with a public option. But Medicaid expansion did do something very good on a very large scale, and it made just enough Republicans very nervous about taking it away.