Your article, "Republicans uneasy over repeal of Obamacare" (Jan. 10), correctly points out the difficulties facing the GOP in its efforts to undo the Affordable Care Act. I cannot imagine that Republicans are prepared to take health care away from 20 million Americans who received health care coverage under the ACA. That would simply be too cruel and politically damaging.
But in order to continue that coverage, Republicans must also extend the taxes and subsidies enacted under that law. Similarly, if Republicans want to preserve the very popular elimination of insurance restrictions due to prior conditions, they must continue the insurance mandates. Otherwise, healthy individuals will simply drop their insurance coverage or re-enter the market only once they became sick, a situation that will drive many insurance carriers into bankruptcy.
So the stark choice facing Republicans is to come up with a new Trumpcare that will closely resemble Obamacare or else, by simply dismantling the existing law, they will cause massive disruption to our health care insurance markets.
Jack Kinstlinger, Towson