Simple strategy, start with cutting mandates.
Yup, I think you’ve nailed it. Kill the mandates, which aren’t popular to begin with, and the ACA begins to starve. It also ought to be fairly easy to nibble away at the program by targeting other funding mechanisms, like the medical device tax. The votes to repeal this legislative abomination outright might not be there, but it is very possible to begin to “starve the beast.”
The only mandates that really cost anything are Guaranteed Issue and Community Rating. The mandated coverages may well contain or stabilize premiums.
Agreed...cut the mandates. Most people can’t afford the deductibles and out of pocket cost and won’t pay them any way.
If they had just addressed pre-existing, most people wouldn’t have said a word. The poor were still getting care.