According to this article, dismantling it is going to be a heck of a lot more difficult than campaign promises make it sound (certainly not a "Day 1" executive fiat). That is, unless the GOP want to create utter chaos in the insurance industry, among the insured, and face a political backlash from a lot of folk who suddenly discover that a lot of the things they really liked about the ACA (such as getting rid of "pre-existing conditions" as a way to deny coverage) are suddenly back in effect.
Given this framing, what I suspect we will end up with is a watered-down ACA that tries to keep the really popular bits, that allows for shoddier policies to be written with fewer consumer protections, that eliminates a number of minimum services that have to be covered (such as free birth control), and that's still even more financially precarious and covers fewer people.
Which is likely better than nothing, but will still lead to added suffering around the nation, and more folk who are less than enchanted by the new management.
Despite Republican pledges, ‘repealing Obamacare’ will be almost impossible — but it could be vandalized
The promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act has been a staple of the Republican Party platform virtually since the law’s enactment in 2010.
At this point I think I've convinced myself that they would do it despite the backlash from citizens.
I'm still not sure they would do it given the massive disruption to companies that have built their budgets assuming its there.
But we are talking about the same Congress that passed a law allowing people to sue other countries and then blamed Obama for not telling them it was a bad idea.
+Kee Hinckley The question is, will not having Obama around to blame cause them to act more responsibly (or more cautiously). Or will they find another scapegoat, successfully or not?
You're trying to make sense of crazy.
The odds, according to Greg:
80% chance that on day one, they introduce the legislation (final version or not) to dismantle Obamacare
From there:
20% chance that they go scorched earth, and just go to "reset" without a specific plan.
60% they go to "reset" with some lip service to the more popular provisions, workable or not.
20% they have an actual plan that accomplishes similar goals
Also
30% chance that they set the legislative tone, by invoking the nuclear option, with a pre-reconciled version between house/senate republicans that allows only an up/down vote (and avoids debate/filibuster.)