Seventeen percent!

That, dear reader, is the apparent standing of the Senate Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The 17 percent figure represents the latest public opinion polling of the GOP plan. Fewer than one in five Americans favor the GOP plan. Health insurers don’t like it; the medical profession opposes it; GOP conservatives opposes, right along with Republican moderates; and, oh yeah, Democrats — who also comprise a big part of the voting block — hate it.

Senate Republican leaders, though, keep insisting that the replacement plan is moving forward.

I keep coming back to the fundamental question: Why can’t the congressional GOP leadership try to mend what they believe is wrong with the ACA instead of tossing it out altogether?

I’ve heard about the flaws contained within the ACA. Premiums are too great; health insurers are bailing out of some states.

But the ACA isn’t “failing” or “collapsing,” according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. It is stabilizing in many states.

I know that the ACA is far from perfect. It needs work to improve it. Why not start there?

A 17-percent approval rating on a plan that guts Medicare and Medicaid protection and tosses Americans off the rolls of the insured would suggest a different approach than the train wreck that awaits this GOP abomination.

That’s the view of a significant majority of Americans. Do these folks in Congress represent their views … or don’t they?