Keep what works, throw out what’s broken. That’s essentially how U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner described Republicans’ long-awaited plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Gardner was the guest Thursday on Jimmy Sengenberger’s “Business for Breakfast” radio show on Money Talk 1690 in Denver.

Gardner spoke in the morning and seemed out of step with the news in Washington by the afternoon.

Gardner told Sengenberger House committee hearings would begin next week on a repeal-and-replace program.

The senator told Sengenberger the bill would be openly debated, “something completely different than six years ago when the Affordable Care Act was written behind closed doors in the leadership offices and crammed down on the Senate floor directly,” he said

Yeah, not so much.

By afternoon news was breaking that House Republican leaders have drafted a version of their major Obamacare repeal and replacement bill, and they’re going to lengths to keep it under wraps.

“The document is being treated a bit like a top-secret surveillance intercept,” Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. “It is expected to be available to members and staffers on the House Energy and Commerce panel starting Thursday, but only in a dedicated reading room, one Republican lawmaker and a committee aide said. Nobody will be given copies to take with them.”

When the committee met on the bill Thursday, Republican Sen. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky staged a protest outside, because he wants to scrap Obamacare entirely and do away with subsidies.

Gardner told Sengenberger the Republican plan would likely give states more flexibility in the Medicaid dollars they receive and the “rebuilding the individual” health insurance markets, as well as tax credits and health savings accounts.

Repeal and replace could include coverage for pre-existing conditions, risk pools and tax credits, while addressing the Medicaid expansion that is swelling state and federal budgets, he said.

“Let’s do this right, but let’s not keep what we have if it’s not working,” he said. “Let’s find a way to make it work better.”

Sengenberger asked Gardner if he had been “MIA” for protesters who want to besiege him at town halls in Colorado, as they’ve done with other senators across the country.

Gardner cited all the places across the state where he met with groups and individuals, as well as a tele-town hall with about 10,000 participants on Wednesday.

“We’re not shying away from tough questions,” he said.

Of protesters, Gardner said, “I understand people are passionate and they want to have their voices heard.”