Repealing Obamacare would mean eliminating provisions like coverage for adult children and coverage requirements for pre-existing conditions but, in terms of raw coverage numbers, Trumpcare could be worse than simply repealing Obamacare.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that Trumpcare would lead to at least 24 million people losing their coverage, but a previous CBO score estimated that 23 million would lose their coverage under repeal.
From the New York Times:
The Republican bill would actually result in more people being uninsured than if Obamacare were simply repealed. Getting rid of the major coverage provisions and regulations of Obamacare would cost 23 million Americans their health insurance, according to another recent C.B.O. report. In other words, 1 million more Americans would have health insurance with a clean repeal than with the Republican replacement plan, according to C.B.O. estimates.
If this fortifies anyone's rhetorical position, I'd guess it would help the Freedom Caucus. A simple repeal of Obamacare is what they're asking for and, as it turns out, that might be better than Paul Ryan's bill.
NEW: At least 26 House Republicans say they can't support the GOP healthcare bill, per @NBCNews count. https://t.co/j1e4FVy5t0 pic.twitter.com/km5V4J0NEp
— CNBC (@CNBC) March 21, 2017
Republicans can only afford to lose 21 votes.