Not "caving in" as much as conservatizing Obamacare. Confirmed conservative, Mike Pence, governor of Indiana has "come around" and accepted the Affordable Care Act on his own terms. Smart move.
“When it comes to the issue of health care, I believe that people in my party need to be solutions conservatives, offering real alternatives to the big-government answers,” he lectured Monday at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, on a visit to Washington. Conservatives, he said, “need to ensure that the safety net is well-designed and strong enough to provide a firm basis for those starting out on life’s ladder.”
That was an implicit rebuke of his former House colleagues who have a “repeal and replace” slogan but have not offered much of a substitute for Obamacare while at the same time attempting to cut food stamps and other parts of the safety net.
Pence, a former head of the conservative Republican Study Committee in the House, was a tea party Republican before there was a tea party. But running a state has given him an elevated perspective. ...DanaMilbank,WaPo
You can call it an "elevated perspective" or you can call it politically smart and financial good sense. Or you can see it as Pence doing his part to help out fellow Republicans who find that too much tea is condemning them to long exile in the outhouse.
