Editorial Board

Missing: The Individual Mandate

Instead of repealing Obamacare, Republicans revised it to make it less effective.

Awaiting CBO score.

Photographer: Win McNamee

The Republicans’ planBloomberg Terminal to change the American health-care system would not be an improvement over Obamacare.

To understand why, it may be helpful to step back -- to ask about the purpose of this or any other health-care plan. America has already decided, as a society, that people should not be allowed to die in the street for lack of health care. President Donald Trump himself has said it, and federal law requires that almost all emergency rooms treat all patients regardless of ability to pay.