"..."repeal and replace" appears to have been rebuffed and rejected."

[zipplewrath]

4. It was never clear how

They were asked many times how they would "replace" and there was never any answer. It is politically impossible to "repeal" the closing of the donut hole and you can't "replace" it without the savings that were achieved with the original legislation. And the insurance companies will howl if they try to repeal the mandate without also elminating the very popular "pre-existing condition" rules.

It was just so much election year sloganeering. Even if they get a majority in the Senate, they won't be able to repeal anything, especially with Obama sitting there with a fresh second term.

There is no interest on either side of the aisle on making any substantive change in what we got. We're all stuck with it pretty much as is, regardless of how elections come out.