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If any slim chance remained that the Senate would pass the House version of Obamacare repeal, the release of the Congressional Budget Offices scoring of the bill surely squashed it. Democrats and the media pounced on predictions that the House bill would leave 23 million more people uninsured a decade from now than Obamacare would, and premiums for elderly Americans and some of those with pre-existing conditions could soar.

Far less attention focused on more positive consequences, such as the deficit reduction that would occur or the lowering of premiums for young people. But those lower premiums are worth dwelling on. Obamacare forces young people to subsidize insurance for seniors, by forbidding insurers to charge the elderly more than three times what they charge the young. This is akin to a law that says companies cannot charge young male drivers more for car insurance than they charge elderly women. It substitutes political wish-fulfillment for actuarial reality.

Also worth noting: Some of those who would lose coverage under the GOP plan never wanted it in the first place. They were forced to buy it by Obamacares individual mandate. (If everyone who could afford insurance had wanted it, no mandate would have been needed in the first place.) There is no reason to lump those consumers in with people who, under the GOP proposal, could lose insurance they prefer to keep. No reason, that is, except to cast the Republican proposal in the worst light possible which is why coverage of the preexisting-condition question has, with a few exceptions, been so superficial, one-sided and just plain wrong.

Critics of the GOP bill also complain that it could make some policies more expensive. Well, yes. But that would not mark a deviation from current trends. As the Department of Health and Human Services recently reported, average premiums in Obamacares individual market have more than doubled, and in three states they have tripled.

None of this means the House proposal achieves perfection far from it. The legislation is a decidedly mixed bag. But then, any health care bill that comes out of Congress is bound to be, since those who vote on it are trying to fix complicated economic problems with political solutions. Obamacare, too, is riddled with shortcomings. But given the odds against Congress producing a replacement everyone can agree on, dont expect it to go away anytime soon.

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Editorial: What next for Republican health-care efforts? - Richmond.com