Playbook: “They want conservatives to relax. They say this repeal and replace bill — which, by the way, wasn’t easy to cobble together — repeals taxes, spending and mandates, reforms entitlements, strips funding from Planned Parenthood and kicks Medicaid control to the states. In other words, this is what Republicans have been asking for! The bill was penned by the committees of jurisdiction, not in the speaker’s office, which is what many conservatives have been clamoring for. Supporters believe the White House wants this bill to pass — but we’ll see how much the president leans in. From the proponents’ point of view the stakes are just too high for the GOP. Failure, they say, is simply not an option after more than a half-dozen years of promising action.”

“If Republicans can’t pass a bill, the familiar blame game will ensue. Was it because the committees and leadership were timid, as conservatives are sure to say? Or will the narrative take hold that, in the quest for the perfect, the conservatives blew up a good bill? If nothing else, Republicans will blame Democrats for not working with them.”

David Nather: “Normally, the Congressional Budget Office would tell them that. But not this time — because the committees are plowing ahead without waiting for the cost and coverage estimates.”

House Republicans “unveiled their long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, scrapping the mandate that nearly all Americans have health insurance and replacing it with a system of tax credits aimed at enticing Americans to purchase health care on the open market,” the New York Times reports.

“The bill’s unveiling set the stage for a bitter and consequential debate over the possible dismantling of the most significant health care law in a half-century. Republicans hope to undo major parts of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement, including income-based tax credits that help millions of Americans afford insurance, taxes on people with high incomes and the penalty for people who do not buy health coverage.”

Politico: “But there were warning signs even hours before GOP leaders unveiled the proposal. Four key Senate Republicans in a Monday letter balked at the House plan to repeal the Medicaid expansion after 2020, underscoring how sharply divided the party still remains over how to transform the health care system and accomplish a core campaign promise.”

“House conservatives, meanwhile, had yet to commit to backing the proposal.”

Chris Jacobs, a well-known conservative health care analyst, writes in The Federalist that the original House Republican Obamacare replacement draft was estimated to cause 10 to 20 million people to lose health care insurance.

Based on my conversations with multiple sources close to the effort, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had indicated to congressional staff that the prior House framework could see at least 10 million, and potentially up to 20 million, individuals losing employer-sponsored health insurance. Further, CBO stated that that House framework, even after including a refundable tax credit for health insurance, would not cover many more people than repealing Obamacare outright.

David Nather: “Republicans have moved on from that draft, and the bill that could be introduced as soon as today is likely to have substantial changes. But that’s why it will be critical for House Republicans to have new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office before the health care committees vote on anything, Jacobs writes — and it’s not clear that that will happen.”