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hide captionFirst lady Michelle Obama at an Affordable Care Act event in March.

First lady Michelle Obama at an Affordable Care Act event in March.

Ever since Republicans began using the words "repeal and replace" back in 2010 to describe their intentions for the Affordable Care Act, they've faced a question: What, exactly, would they replace it with?

While there's currently no clear Republican alternative for the health care law, President Obama's signature domestic achievement, the House Republican leadership is signaling there will be one this year.

The signal came in the form of an interview The Washington Post's Robert Costa had with House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third-highest-ranking official in the House GOP's leadership.

The goal: give voters a clear way to distinguish the Republican and Democratic approaches as part of the GOP plan to bludgeon Democrats with the controversial health care law at every opportunity this midterm election year.

While there apparently isn't yet a detailed alternative to analyze, the concepts being considered as part of the proposed replacement are far from new. Indeed, they've been part of Republican alternatives from conservative think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

The final GOP package could include old standbys like health savings accounts, expanding state-run high-risk pools for the hardest-to-insure individuals, and the sale of insurance across state lines.

One immediate problem for Republicans is that these ideas don't exactly have buy-in from the insurance industry like, say, the individual mandate did, and without its backing, they would be hard to pull off.

Indeed, the insurance industry might be expected to fiercely lobby with its ample war chest against some, if not all, the GOP proposals.

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GOP's Health Law Alternative Could Be Messy As Obamacare