Outraged voters and politicians alike are demanding to know why a group of Senate Democrats sided with Republicans to reopen the government without securing any concessions on preserving health care coverage — just days after the party swept last week’s elections with a burst of energy fueled, in part, by its willingness to fight back.

Democrats had spent weeks arguing that the longest shutdown in history was necessary to make sure health care subsidies administered under the Affordable Care Act were preserved in the next spending package. They won’t be: Instead, Senate Republicans agreed to hold a separate vote on ACA subsidies by the end of the year. With Republicans in the majority, Democrats are almost guaranteed to lose.

Speaking to The Intercept, a key Democratic leader who voted to end the shutdown argued the party did get something out of the fight: the illustration of a point.

“It proved the point that Republicans are not sensitive to health care insurance premiums and we are sensitive to health care insurance premiums,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., “and the national polls show that we’ve made a national issue out of [it].”

Durbin, who is retiring at the end of his current term, is the only member of Democratic leadership to vote for the deal to end the government shutdown. He told The Intercept that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was “disappointed” by his decision but understood.

Without Republican votes to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, millions of Americans are expected to see their health care premiums double next year. And despite........

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