The Long, Hard Road to Repealing Obamacare

The path is long, complicated and carries enormous risks, potentially taking the entire insurance system with it in the process

Republicans watched President Obama crash against the shores of health care reform over and over again over the last seven years. Now the wheel is in GOP hands, and the politics are only more treacherous, NBC News reported.

Republican leaders are excited at the prospect of fulfilling their longtime promise to replace the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature legislative accomplishment, and injecting more free market principles into health care. But the path is long, complicated and carries enormous risks, potentially taking the entire insurance system with it in the process.

The main problem is that there is no perfect replacement: Any changes they make to the system will inevitably create new winners and losers, just as Obamacare did. There is a long list of agonizing choices ahead for Republican lawmakers, many of whom are new to the nitty gritty of health care policy.

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