The mandate has been eliminated by EO, and Obamacare will consequently self-destruct, for that and other reasons.
President Trump has done what he can via EO, and I presume HHS Secretary Price will be doing the same with his powers.
The HFC cannot produce a bill that the whole House will pass, anymore than Paul Ryan can, apparently.
So we're stuck, and Congress will be seen as a "do nothing" legislature, and the GOP will get hammred in the 2018 midterms, and that'll be the end of anything constructive getting passed.
But, hey, at least some of the HFC might still be there to keep moving the goalposts around the field while the ball is still in the air. That is the testimony of one of its own former members.
How is that any different from Lucy snatching the ball? Is moving the goalposts somehow more principled?
Obama lost a lawsuit over the federal government paying the subsidies. The appeal hearing is scheduled May 22. If Trump decides to drop the appeal then that major part of obamacare could go away, unless Ryan chooses to fund it anyway, 10 billion dollars, and the insurance lobbyists are working to that end.