Repealing ObamaCare won't be easy

Standing in the way of that seemingly simple campaign promise—an article of faith among GOP voters—is a welter of practical and political obstacles. They include immovable limits on what elements the Senate can tackle, in the likely event Republicans don’t have a 60-seat majority after the 2012 election, and the party’s need to come up with spending cuts to replace savings promised by “ObamaCare,” as it’s dubbed by critics…

The conundrum is in part a direct consequence of the law’s complexity, something Democrats now consider an asset. In the House, some Republicans have been studying ways to choke off funds for the law while working toward repeal, while in the Senate Republicans are pushing bills to knock out specific pieces of the law…

In a March 2011 survey by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, 74% said they thought lawmakers should keep provisions that prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history. But a new poll just released by the foundation found that 51% of respondents have an unfavorable opinion of the law, up from 46% in the March survey.

In the coming election campaign, Democrats are expected to highlight such provisions, including a mandate that insurance companies issue coverage for children even if they have pre-existing medical conditions.