That's the way they should have approached this from the very start -- repeal first (the key budgetary parts that only require 50 votes), and then work on a bipartisan replacement (which will take 60 votes in the Senate, thus force it to be bipartisan instead if the awful 100% partisan Obamacare plan we're stuck with now).  

And no, it wouldn't leave the country with "nothing".  Obviously the repeal would have a future effective date (probably 2019 or 2020), giving them time to work on a replacement.  And even if they didn't, it just rolls us back to where we were a decade ago, which hardly leaves the country with "nothing".