Exposing the Obvious About the GOP Health-Care Bill

The gory details of the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the House legislation to “repeal and replace” Obamacare are, in many ways, superfluous. The bill’s flaws, substantive and otherwise, have long been evident. Less clearly understood, though equally disturbing, is the larger political context.

That’s not to say the particulars of the CBO report, released Wednesday, are irrelevant: far from it. The report says the Republican effort would increase the number of uninsured by 14 million in 2018, rising to 23 million in a decade. Millions would lose coverage due to the bill’s cuts to Medicaid. Others would lose it because people who are older, sicker or both would find they are priced out of useful insurance. People with pre-existing health conditions would, once again, be at the actuarial mercy of insurance companies that were never organized to be charities.