Two views on the pros and cons of the GOP health care bill

LANHEE CHEN, Former Policy Director, Mitt Romney Campaign:

Well, that's certainly one perspective.

I would argue that, in fact, this bill is a very good start. I think, clearly, it's not perfect. There are improvements that need to be made in the bill.

But let's just start with a couple of things. First of all, obviously, the Congressional Budget Office estimates do reveal that in fact the bill is going to cut the deficit, it's going to cut spending over the next 10 years and provide almost $1 trillion in tax relief over the years — over the next 10 years.

So I think those are points you are going to hear supporters of the law point to. Clearly, on the coverage numbers, the 24 million number is a big number. I think they have got some work to do there.

The challenge is that, without an individual mandate, without a massive and costly expansion to Medicaid, you're not going to see the same kind of coverage numbers that you saw out of the Affordable Care Act. I think Republicans need to be willing to accept that at least as presently constituted, their plan is not going to get to the same levels.

Now, the question becomes, are people going to have more choices? Are premiums going down? And indeed the CBO report finds that beginning in 2020, premiums are going to go down and consumers are going to have more choices.

The reason why consumers might want to buy skinny down plans is because they don't want to pay for all of the excessive benefits that are mandated and required by the Affordable Care Act. So, in fact, it's a quite reasonable response to what we have seen from the over-regulation created by the ACA over the last 10 years.

Now, in the employer marketplace, let me just make one point. The CBO when they estimated the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, upon passage also noted that many millions of Americans would lose their coverage in the employer marketplace. It's not unusual to see shifting between marketplaces as it's created by a large-scale reform such as the ACA or the current bill that Republicans are considering.

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