It's too late to punt on ObamaCare

Unfortunately, Republicans don’t have that as a realistic option – either politically or practically. They have fought Obamacare in four successive national elections, winning three of four and sweeping the field in 2016 to return to single-party governance in Washington DC. Trump and almost every Republican who ran for the House and Senate explicitly cited Obamacare repeal as a top priority. Punting on repeal in favor of a few incremental changes would only deepen the hostility and suspicion that the populist-minded grassroots on the Right already have for Republican leadership. The potential backlash could cost the GOP a chance to gain a large Senate majority in 2018, or possibly even control of the House.

Practically speaking, a punt won’t work because of the increasing instability in Obamacare exchanges. Democrats insisted that the ACA would deliver near-universal health insurance coverage and that 23 million Americans would get insurance through the exchanges by 2017. Instead, a new projection from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that only 10 million will pay premiums for coverage this year, and that number will only go up to 13 million after another decade. On top of that, the number of uninsured Americans will “remain around 27 million or 28 million” each year under the current system.