3 gallingly wrong assumptions at the heart of the GOP's 'Better Care' act

No. No. No.

Sen. Mitch McConnell and other Republican senators.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A sharp crew of conservative policy wonks (the "reformocons") has long tried to put together a coherent critique of and alternative to Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. The GOP House's American Health Care Act largely ignored these proposals. But the Better Care Reconciliation Act, released by the Senate last week, migrates back in the reformocons' direction.

Avik Roy, the premiere conservative health wonk, declared that if the Senate bill passes, "it'll be the greatest policy achievement by a GOP Congress in my lifetime." The New York Times' Ross Douthat, another reformocon scribe, was less enthusiastic. But he allowed that the Senate bill improves on the House version in many ways.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.