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Article snippet: In dry, stark language, the Congressional Budget Office on Monday punctured many of the stated goals for the Republican health care bill. The budget analysis gave Republican senators just a few happy talking points. It found that average insurance premiums would be lower in 2020 than they are today. The bill would reduce the deficit by more than $300 billion over a decade. And it would produce a huge tax cut, albeit mostly for wealthier Americans. But if you are a Republican senator looking for good news in this report, there are many more reasons to be glum than cheerful. The Better Care Reconciliation Act, as the Senate version of the bill is called, would lead 22 million fewer Americans to have insurance in a decade, the C.B.O. found, almost no change from the earlier House bill that the Senators have been overhauling. It said the legislation would increase deductibles, make insurance more skimpy and destabilize markets. Average premiums would go down largely because the insurance they would pay for would become thinner and less valuable. Older people more likely to need insurance would be priced out of the market. President Trump asked the Senate to write a bill that was less “mean” than a version passed by the House last month. According to a White House news release, the budget office’s score is not disqualifying. But the fine print suggests the bill does not do much to help the people who would have been harmed under that earlier legislation. The Senate ma... Link to the full article to read more