That would be one of the most delicious entries in the Annals of Unintended Consequences ever. Consider why this could become a reality below and why the insurance companies themselves should probably start trying to rein in the Republicans lest they become the baby in the bathwater of the Republicans' good(?) intentions.
As we all are aware, the ACA, Obamacare, Romneycare or whatever you want to call it, is the Republican solution to keep for profit, market driven insurers at the heart of the American healthcare system.
The ACA in all reality should be an insurance company executives wet dream: mandatory enrollment, a huge pool to spread losses, community and age ratings maintained, a GUARANTEED forever profit margin of between 15-20% on the item consuming 17 cents of every dollar spent in America due to the Medical Loss Ratio being enshrined into law; plus, no need to deal with the poorer segment of people who have been handed off to Medicaid to deal with all the health issues they have been ignoring due to poverty over the years. And, since there is no mechanism to put pressure on costs once the public option was disappeared, the healthcare industry is free to run amok as it always has with half the bill going to the government for those who qualify for subsidies.
And the idiot Republicans are coming very close to screwing all this up permanently for the healthcare industry! If they succeed in repealing Obamacare, do they or anyone else in the world think that the issues of:
*tens of millions of uninsured Americans
*unaffordable rates
*annual and lifetime limits
*Pre-existing condition discrimination
*50,000 annual deaths due to Lack of Coverage
*Continually rising uncontrolled costs
*Medically related bankruptcies
are going to go away? The Republicans will simply have to deal with all the same issues all over again, only in some drawn out piecemeal fashion OR simply put the onus on the individual states to due what they will, given a clean slate.
Consider, if the Dems, who have the mantle of caring for the little guy, couldn't pull off the goal of maintaining the barnyard of golden geese for the healthcare industry, why will the mean, angry, bigoted, old, crotchety, misogynist Republican Party do any better or have more credibility? The obvious answer is that they won't.
If the kindly, well-intentioned Democrats couldn't fix the game well enough to keep the Big Boys in, then frankly, no one can do it.
Far from proving that Government has no place in healthcare, the Republicans are proving that Government has the ONLY place in healthcare.
Remember that much of our current "crisis" is due to the inability of the insurers to offer credible, non-scam policies at a reasonable rate in the open, unsubsidized market off the exchange. This WOULD have been their opportunity to show how they can come through when the chips are down and COMPETE with the subsidized exchanges and they just couldn't come through. Sad.
If the Republicans are misguided enough to repeal Obamacare, they will almost single handedly ignite millions of Americans to coalesque into single issue voters who are for the implementation of single payer so that we can stop all this nonsense and get on with our healthier and wealthier lives.
So, Ted and Darryl, I know it is premature for me to thank you in advance, but I think you are going down a path that you will regret and that I will applaud in the future. Much better for your political futures to back off, unless you relish the thought of being the 2 politicians who forced the issue and brought Single Payer to our country.