‘Skinny repeal’ could be the Senate’s health-care bill of last resort

As the Senate prepared Tuesday to take a first-step vote on ill-defined Republican plans to go after the Affordable Care Act, a new phrase entered the lexicon of the debate: “skinny repeal.”

In substance, this plan would repeal just three parts of the ACA, according to several sources familiar with the approach. It would eliminate the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance as well as the requirement that employers with at least 50 full-time employees offer coverage to their workers. Both are central elements of the 2010 health-care law and its least popular aspects with the public.