Obamacare an issue in 2016?

[Likely Voter]

While not central to his general election, Romney has run ads talking about repealing Obamacare and more about how Obama used medicare to fund it. But assuming Obama wins, will Obamacare be an issue in 2016? By that time it will be the law of the land. The Medicare advantage savings will be implemented, the fees, the mandate, the kids covered, the no discrimination for pre-existing, the exchanges, etc.

Could the GOP candidate in 2016 run in the general on fully repealing it? Would it even be possible to fully repeal once it is in effect?

[Michael]

insufficient psychic power

[5280/East California]

I think it will be repealed sometime in 2014-2015.

[Mehmentum]

I think it will be repealed sometime in 2014-2015.

No.  Even if Obama loses and the GOP takes the Senate and holds the House they won't be able to.  They need a supermajority and a solid one (with no possible defectors) simply isn't possible the way we're polarized right now. 

[Mr.Phips]

I think it will be repealed sometime in 2014-2015.

So you are predicting a Romney win?  As long as Obama or another Democrat is in the White House, they will veto any attempt at repeal. 

[Nagas]

In 2016 Obamacare will be in full effect (assuming Obama wins and/or Dems hold a chamber of Congress, both of which are likely). It would be a pain to repeal it once it's already integrated and it would spook the markets if they attempted repeal. The GOP's best shot was to have it overturned in the SCOTUS. It wasn't

[Skill and Chance]

I think it will be repealed sometime in 2014-2015.

So you are predicting a Romney win?  As long as Obama or another Democrat is in the White House, they will veto any attempt at repeal. 

Repeal in 2014-15 would mean a Romney win with a narrow Democratic senate in 2013.  Republicans would almost surely flip the senate in 2014.  What would be really interesting is if Democrats picked up the house in 2014 while losing the senate, then you have Romney in power for 4 years and Obamacare is still in effect...

[Peter the Lefty]

Nah.  HOPEFULLY, people will see the devastation that the mandate has caused to the poor, and we'll be talking about a Single-payer system as an alternative.  But since is the Democrats we're talking about, they'll make it a total taboo within the party to criticize anything Obama did, and idolize him as some sort of God, just like they did for Clinton.  I mean, anyone who criticizes Clinton from the left is dismissed by the Democratic establishment (with the help of their friends in the media) as some sort of radical far-leftist and is ignored or marginalized.  Even if its on things like his welfare "reform," which was unpopular within the party at the time, no Democrat can criticize it now and expect to get anywhere within the party.  And when they talk about re-instating the parts of Glass-Stegall Act that Clinton repealed, no one ever dares to mention the fact that Clinton signed the bill to repeal them. 

[I Can't Get That Sound You Make, Out Of My Head]

I think it will be repealed sometime in 2014-2015.

No.  Even if Obama loses and the GOP takes the Senate and holds the House they won't be able to.  They need a supermajority and a solid one (with no possible defectors) simply isn't possible the way we're polarized right now. 

Budget reconciliation. They can  around with Obamacare without outright repeal.

However if Obama's elected it's basically impossible.

[Shadowlord88]

By 2016, the law will be in full effect and the GOP's current message that it will be detrimental to America won't have the same pull outside their base, especially if they've been saying it for years.  The GOP will likely move on to fresh issues that we won't know about until the 2016 election kicks into gear. 

[Harry]

Conservatives will have some new pet issue to complain about by 2016, maybe something immigration-related.

[BushKenya]

It will not be an issue, IMHO.  By the 2016 elections, it will have been the law of the land for nearly 3 full years and, I believe, the panic caused by the Republicans about how its going to destroy America, will not have come to fruition.  I agreed with Obamacare in early 2010 when it was signed into law, and I believe it will end up being a good thing for America.