Congressional Republicans are already putting plans in place to repeal the Affordable Care Act immediately after President-elect Trump’s inauguration, according to the New York Times.

House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke to Vice President-elect Mike Pence this week about a plan to effectively phase out the Affordable Care Act over a course of years, which he hopes would allow Republicans to come up with a suitable replacement for it and evade the likely backlash that would come with disrupting a system that has insured 20 million Americans since its introduction. Thousands of people signed up for Obamacare just in the days after Trump was elected, which officials took as sign of just how much the Act is needed.

The Republicans “repeal and delay” strategy acknowledges how complicated it will be to undo the program, which has even gotten praise by President-elect Trump for including provisions such as barring discrimination of people with pre-existing conditions and allowing adults under 26 to remain on their parent’s health insurance.

Some experts believe that taking away the overarching structure provided by President Obama’s signature legislation would likely cause market chaos and raise costs for insurance companies.

The legislation is bound to include propositions that Republicans favor to economically strengthen the plan, including allowing the sale of insurance across state lines to beef up competition - a plan that Sen. Marco Rubio suggested.

Before these plans can proceed, though, Republicans will need the support of Democrats in the Senate. Even some moderate Republicans have been critical of the "repeal first and take action later approach," preferring a simultaneous plan that would advance a sustainable system as it removes the entrenched one. In the House, the legislation to repeal could move forward as quickly as January or February.

h/t The New York Times