What’s working against ACA repeal

The death of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has looked all but certain since the election of Donald Trump. Debate has focused on how and when, not if, the law would be rolled back, but one Democratic healthcare lobbyist is offering a different scenario.

Billy Wynne, managing partner at TRP Health Policy, makes his argument in a Health Affairs blog post, laying out five reasons why the ACA won’t be repealed. His first point is what Republicans are proposing isn’t actually a repeal—but is really about eliminating a few of the law’s components, like the individual and employer mandates.

Like other critics of the current repeal plan, Wynne says lawmakers can’t only keep the popular provisions of the law without leaving the insurance market “destroyed.”

“Every health care economist on the left or right agrees that if you take that critical mass of enrollees away, the market crumbles, making the consumer protections unsustainable. But that is exactly what the Republican repeal plan would do,” Wynne wrote. “While it’s true that the current ACA marketplaces are fragile and in need of refinement, repeal at this time would shatter a burgeoning consumer-driven market that has already endured repeated attempts to undermine its stability.”

To read why healthcare providers and Republican governors may be the ones to stand in the way of repeal plans, click on the link below: