"The best policy and politics would be to fix parts of the law that have produced big recent increases in the cost of premiums for the sliver of Americans who don't get insurance through Medicare, Medicaid or their employers, and don't qualify for subsidies through Obamacare. Some cutbacks and additional cost controls would also be useful and popular. But the Republican base would never accept those measures, meaning the likely course will be to craft a radical replacement.
Then, a year or two from now, the headlines wouldn't be about rising premiums or not being able to keep your own doctor. They'd be about some of the 20 million newly insured people being thrown off the rolls; cutbacks in Medicaid for poorer Americans; crowded emergency rooms; weakening of provisions that are reducing hospital-caused patient harms; maybe some hospitals going broke, and the insurance industry in chaos. If Ryan gets his way there could also be articles about steps toward privatizing Medicare despite Trump's campaign pledge not to. (The Speaker was called out for falsely claiming last week that this course was needed because Obamacare is causing Medicare to go "broke." In reality, the full solvency of the hospital part of Medicare has been extended for up to 12 years.)"
From Bloomberg View on repealing Obamacare.
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