2. Trump, Speaker Ryan (if he survives), and the Republican majority will then replace the ACA with _________________.

There's a blank there because I don't know what they'll put in its place. Neither do they. Trump has, however, promised to fill the hole with "something terrific." Here are a few of their ideas:

Trump has suggested allowing for the sale of health insurance across state lines, which is already permissible under the ACA and will do absolutely nothing to solve the problem. Nonetheless, this suggestion also appears in Paul Ryan's "A Better Way" proposal, so it's almost certain to make it into the final legislation.
Trump and Ryan have also made it clear that they're big fans of health savings accounts, which is good since they've been around for more than a decade and have grown rapidly under the ACA. Perhaps they'll entertain the thought of separating them from high deductible health plans, as I suggested in a 2009 article.
They've also floated the idea of an individual tax credit for people with health insurance. Unfortunately, this will be more beneficial to people who can afford to pay the premium and wait to be reimbursed than it will for people who currently rely on an advance tax credit to help pay their monthly bills.
What will happen to the guaranteed issue provision is anyone's guess. Ryan has suggested eliminating the individual mandate and creating risk pools as a safety net for people with medical conditions. Of course, the prices for these plans would be sky high (yes, even higher than current marketplace coverage), so I assume we'd need to support the pools with tax dollars.
Finally, the Cadillac tax will no longer be a concern, but Paul Ryan strongly supports a cap on the employer exclusion, which will have similar negative impacts on ancillary benefits and tax-advantaged accounts like FSAs. It's a bad idea that the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) opposes.

3. And now for the prediction I feel most confident making: In the same way that we knew the Democrats wouldn't be able to solve the health care and health insurance crises in this country with the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans will not be able to solve our clients' problems with their proposals.

In fact, I would strongly argue that the ideas suggested so far will likely make the problems worse. For that reason, the market will be left to solve the problems largely on its own. So how do we do that? By getting consumers more involved in their health care decisions; letting them buy plans they feel provide an adequate amount of coverage based on their health conditions and financial situations; giving them a way to save for a rainy day; providing them with transparency tools so they can see the true cost of health care services; and giving them alternatives so they can receive care in new, alternative, cost-saving ways.

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The election is over: 3 health care predictions

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