What Editorials Are Saying About Senate Health Plan

President Obama hates it, but that sentiment about the Senate Republicans' plan to replace ObamaCare isn't quite unanimous. Here's a look at what editorials are saying:

• Wall Street Journal: It implores Republicans to get this passed and not wilt under pressure from the media and Democrats. The measure is an "imperfect compromise" but also a "major improvement over the US health-care status quo that will worsen if the bill fails," write the editors. "It’s not too much to say this is a defining moment for whether the GOP can ever reform runaway entitlements."

• New York Times: This isn't a health care bill, say the editors. "It is, plain and simple, a plan to cut taxes for the wealthy by destroying critical federal programs that help provide health care to tens of millions of people." The bill's creators now have to bargain with holdouts to get it into final form, but "no amount of tinkering around the edges" can save it. If passed, it will take a "devastating toll on millions of Americans."
• Washington Post: The bill "includes a range of mostly unwise and ungenerous changes to the nation’s health-care system, but it might, if enacted, end up as mostly a massive, unpaid-for tax cut for wealthy people and industries with pull on Capitol Hill," says the editorial. Ditching the individual mandate in particular would inject chaos into health insurance markets.
• Washington Examiner: The conservative paper opposes the bill for not going far enough to dismantle ObamaCare. "The Better Care Reconciliation Act isn't a bill to reform healthcare. This is a bill to notionally repeal Obamacare while propping the insurance market up through the next election. It's an exercise in political box-checking and ass-covering."
• Forbes: This isn't an editorial, but an op-ed by Avik Roy that argues the Senate bill will "transform" US health care for the better. For conservatives tempted to vote no, he asks: "How many times in your life will you have the opportunity to vote for a bill that fundamentally transforms two entitlement programs? How often will you get to vote for a bill that cuts spending by hundreds of billions of dollars? How often will you get a chance to make a difference for millions of your constituents who are struggling under the weight of rising premiums and exploding deductibles?"

(More health care reform stories.)