If John McCain hadn't basically gotten out of his death bed to vote no on repeal, it would have been gone.

With Trump in the White House, Republican control of the Senate and likely the House, and a stacked Supreme Court, there's nothing to stop him from tearing down whatever he wants. There doesn't have to be a replacement plan. Insurance companies will applaud the end of ACA mandates, which will let them sell policies without minimum government requirements for coverage and they can go back to denying coverage for "pre-existing"conditions. It's going to screw over a lot of people.

That's not entirely true. Everyone forgets there was an individual mandate penalty that his administration & congress repealed.

Anyone remember how the ACA assessed a tax on those who were not insured? (with income based exceptions). The tax was meant to feed into the ACA and keep plans in the marketplace cheaper, and to stop the program from adding to the federal deficit.

Once the trump administration came in they worked with Congress to eliminate that tax penalty.

Here is a helpful article that talks about the penalty and what the early findings showed when it was removed.

he didnt have the fanatic support then that he has now

He wanted to get re-elected last time.

I think it's a good question. My take, and I dunno if it's right, is that they fucked up with Roe vs. Wade, and they know it

they were the dog that caught the car, so to speak. But once you catch the car, what do you do with it? It's no longer something you can use to activate your base. They pivoted the messaging from "abortion bad" to "states rights," but I think that's less of a hot button issue.

So I'm really hoping it's the same with the ACA

they want to talk about how Dems are socialists and socialism is bad, but they don't necessarily want to "catch the car" here. I do think that any changes will be explicitly about "Obamacare" and any replacement (even if it's exactly the same) will be pushed as "Trumpcare."

I'm probably way off though, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they indeed repeal the ACA. And as much as I feel like a horrible person saying it, I have pretty much zero sympathy for those about to get their face eaten by the leopards

I voted D, and I'm not reliant on the ACA, so basically sorry, but go fuck yourself (not you personally, just the regretful Trump voters

I am deeply sympathetic to others affected by this).