If the ACA was such a bad deal, why have the Republicans basically found it impossible to repeal? The ACA isn’t perfect, it’s like many things that get through Congress, a whole lot of compromise (and the irony there, as the Republicans are finding out, is that even when your party controls Congress, that doesn’t make compromise disappear). The fact is that a growing, and probably now significant majority of Americans believe that government has a significant, perhaps even pre-eminent role in healthcare, and it’s probably the last or near last major step before the US adopts some form of universal health care.