The House Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act has been handled like a state secret, and now we know why. According to estimates this week from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, about 14 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage in just the first year and 24 million by 2026.

The Affordable Care Act definitely has problems, as we've pointed out on these pages before. But it has provided since its inception health coverage to millions of Americans. The new budget report makes it clear this reform plan isn't the way to go. Stripping millions of Americans of health care is a lose-lose situation - for both struggling Americans and for Republicans, who would go down in history as responsible for a health-care catastrophe.

As President Trump recently acknowledged, reforming the Affordable Care Act is complicated. He pledged in his speech to a joint session of Congress just two weeks ago to replace it with a plan that would give people cheaper insurance, better coverage, more choices, and a continued guarantee that pre-existing conditions won't deny anyone.

It's a tough needle to thread. Republicans do themselves and their country no favors by rushing forward with a plan that could turn already problematic patient care into a chaotic mess.

Under the plan revealed last week by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the most vulnerable Americans would feel the carnage the most. Medicaid, which provides health benefits to poorest and often sickest, would be slashed by $880 billion over 10 years. Lower-income Americans would lose tax credits that help provide coverage.

The Affordable Care Act's "individual mandate" that requires people to buy insurance would be eliminated, making it more difficult - and costly - to find the right mix of healthy and sick Americans to support a comprehensive health plan for all.

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The White House needs to drop the charade that no problems exist in the proposal. Tom Price, secretary of Health and Human Services, said Monday he disagrees "strenuously" with the congressional budget estimates and called them "just not believable."

But the congressional numbers crunchers aren't the only ones predicting dire consequences from the GOP plan. A White House analysis predicts that 26 million -- two million more than the CBO estimates -- would lose insurance under the proposed American Health Care Act.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina offered a more reasoned perspective on the congressional budget report this week: "If they're half right, that'd still be a lot of people who are uninsured."

Ryan should listen to those counseling prudence. Republicans must find ways to better spread health insurance risks, not shift costs onto the backs of the most vulnerable Americans and avert escalating debt.

After all, the GOP mustn't make the same mistake they accused Democrats' of making with Obamacare. That mistake? Passing on a party-line vote a complicated, far-reaching package of health-insurance reforms without fully understanding - or owning - the consequences.

What you can do:

Contact your representative in Congress at house.gov and send an email to register your opposition to the American Health Care Act.

Contact Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz to register your opposition to the American Health Care Act. Cruz's office can be reached at (202) 224-5922, and press 1 to leave a message.

Cornyn's office can be reached at (202) 224-2934, and press 2 to leave a message.

Both senators' websites have online forms for constituents to send an email. The websites are cornyn.senate.gov and cruz.senate.gov.