Obamacare replacement is hard to score, budget experts say

Republicans have a point that their Obamacare replacement plan is particularly hard for the Congressional Budget Office to score, budget experts say.

The bill, which Democrats are sharply criticizing for its lack of a CBO score, gives states much more leeway in how they would provide — or not provide — health insurance for people. And predicting how states will behave over the next decade is a time-consuming and tricky task for the agency.

The agency ultimately will release a score estimating how much the plan would cost and how many people it would cover, likely early next week. House Republicans refused to wait for it, instead plunging ahead Wednesday with committee markups on their bill to repeal some big parts of the Affordable Care Act, reshape its health insurance subsidies and change the way Medicaid is funded.

They have political reasons to move forward quickly, as the CBO score could open them up to even more criticism if it shows the measure is too expensive or would result in fewer people being covered.

But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady also blamed the nature of the legislation itself for why there's no CBO score yet when queried by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt this week.