"We are forced to work together to try to solve these problems, and I think, frankly, bipartisan solutions tend to be more durable."

— Senator John Cornyn (R-Tx)

• Why Obamacare Repeal Failed Vox by Dylan Scott and Sarah Kliff — Republicans' seven-year quest to repeal Obamacare ground to a halt at 1:30 am on Friday when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) approached the podium in the Senate chamber, raised his arm, and gave the clerk a thumbs down.. But understanding why Republicans are so stuck on Obamacare repeal requires digging a bit deeper. How does a party campaign on a very specific policy and then, after gaining control of all levers of government, struggle to deliver on it? One part of the answer is political: Too many Republican legislators actually like certain parts of the health care law — and their constituents like them too. 


• Republicans Leave Town with No Clear Path on Obamacare Politico by Jennifer Haberkorn and Paul Demko — Republicans are leaving Washington Thursday for a month of recess with no clear direction on what they'll do next on Obamacare. Senate leaders want to just drop the issue altogether. Conservatives say they're still fighting for repeal. Moderates want to launch a bipartisan effort to fix the shaky Obamacare system. The reality is that, after seven years of unity on repealing Obamacare, Republicans are rudderless on how to talk about or address the defining domestic policy issue of nearly the past decade for their party, and they have no clear plans despite holding all the levers of power in Washington. Now, they face a month away from the Capitol, answering to their home-state voters about their lack of progress.


• As Trump Mulls Cutting Off Obamacare Aid, Senate Begins Bipartisan Approach Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey and David Lauter — Even as President Trump renews his threat to undermine the Affordable Care Act, senior Republican and Democratic senators announced plans Tuesday to begin work on a new bipartisan effort to stabilize the 2010 health care law, often called Obamacare. The move — by Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the committee's senior Democrat — does not ensure the end of the GOP's long Obamacare repeal campaign. But in the wake of last week's dramatic collapse of the Senate GOP repeal effort, it signaled a new willingness by Republican senators to begin work on fixing weaknesses in the current law rather than trying to roll it back. Most independent experts, industry officials, and state regulators say stabilizing the markets and controlling premium hikes would actually be relatively straightforward.

• With Tom Price in Charge, Doctors Are Winning Again in Washington Stat by Erin Mershon — Quietly, away from the spotlight cast on his effort to dismantle Obamacare, Price has been rolling back regulations that have been criticized by his former physician colleagues. And, unlike with the Affordable Care Act, he has been able to do so without the blessing of Congress. He's given an American Medical Association committee even more power over how much the federal government pays for different medical services. He has pitched retroactively reversing certain Medicare rules to ensure some physicians no longer face penalties they would otherwise have had to pay. He has proposed using almost $1 billion in savings that would be achieved through cuts to certain hospital payments to boost spending on physicians. And over and over again, he has delayed Obama-era regulations that would have penalized doctors who aren't ready or able to move away from Medicare's longstanding "fee-for-service" approach.

   

• Court Complicates Trump's Threat to Cut ‘Obamacare' Funds Associated Press by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar  — President Donald Trump's bold threat to push "Obamacare" into collapse may get harder to carry out after a new court ruling. The procedural decision late Tuesday by a federal appeals panel in Washington has implications for millions of consumers. The judges said that a group of states can defend the legality of government "cost-sharing" subsidies for copays and deductibles under the Affordable Care Act if the Trump administration decides to stop paying the money.

• Some Insurers Asking for Premium Increases of 30 Percent or Higher: Report The Hill by Mallory Shelbourne — Insurers in several states are pursuing premium increases nearing 30 percent or higher for Obamacare health plans, according to a Tuesday report in The Wall Street Journal. Large insurers in West Virginia, Wyoming, Iowa, South Carolina, and Idaho are looking to up their premiums, records from the Department of Health and Human Services show. Some insurers in Tennessee, Hawaii, North Dakota, and New Mexico are pursuing increases at 20 percent or higher. Other insurers are seeking standard increases, requests that come ahead of an imminent deadline for insurers to finish their rates.

• White House Opioid Commission to Trump: "Declare a National Emergency" on Drug Overdoses Washington Post by Christopher Ingraham — The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis issued a preliminary report on Monday stating that its "first and most urgent recommendation" is for the president to "declare a national emergency under either the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Act." In addition, the commission's first report includes a number of recommendations that public health experts and drug policy reformers have been advocating for years, including expanding capacity for drug treatment under Medicaid.

• Pharma Transparency Policies Are Vague and Contradictory, Analysis Finds Stat by Ed Silverman — After several years in which drugmakers have been pressured to release clinical trial data, a new analysis finds many companies are still doing an incomplete or inconsistent job of being transparent. Overall, 95 percent of the 42 companies reviewed — including the 25 largest drug makers, based on sales — had a publicly accessible policy. Otherwise, however, the specifics often varied wildly in terms of what is disclosed and even how to interpret some of the policies.

• GOP States Move to Cut Medicaid The Hill by Nathaniel Weixel and Rachel Roubein — Republican governors are working with the Trump administration to do something Congress couldn't accomplish: fundamentally alter their state Medicaid programs. At least six states with GOP governors — Arkansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin, and Indiana — have already drafted plans meant to introduce new rules people would have to meet to be eligible for Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans and those with certain disabilities. Some want to add work requirements or introduce drug testing for recipients. Others want to raise premium prices. The Trump administration has to approve the plans. Some approvals could come in weeks.

Editor: Peter Van Vranken