"We’ve added 27,000-some-odd Alaskans to the covered rolls. I want to make sure whatever we do post-ACA, we don’t leave these good folks hanging.”

—Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

“The change between the pre-Affordable Care Act individual market and the individual market today is night and day. For someone who has a preexisting health condition, even if it’s a very minor one, they’re guaranteed to get a health plan, and that was just not the case prior to the ACA.” 

—Sara Collins, Vice President, The Commonwealth Fund

• As GOP Plows Forward in Obamacare Repeal, New Data Show the Nation's Uninsured Rate Hit a Record Low Last Year Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey—The nation’s uninsured rate tumbled further last year, hitting the lowest rate on record, according to new government data that underscored what is at stake in the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In the first nine months of 2016, just 8.8 percent of Americans lacked health coverage, survey data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. 

• House G.O.P. Leaders Outline Plan to Replace Obama Health Care Act New York Times by Robert Pear and Thomas Kaplan—House Republican leaders on Thursday presented their rank-and-file members with the outlines of their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, leaning heavily on tax credits to finance individual insurance purchases and sharply reducing federal payments to the 31 states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility. 
  
  
• Conservatives Balking at GOP Leadership's Obamacare Plans Politico by Rachael Bade—Hardliners are set to demand that leadership move now to repeal the law, even if that means a replacement has to wait. House conservatives—anxious that the GOP’s effort to end Obamacare is getting bogged down in the fight over what a replacement should look like—are plotting a major push to repeal the law immediately without simultaneously approving an alternative. The House Freedom Caucus and a number of Republican Study Committee members this week will urge Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his lieutenants to forego their plan to add replacement provisions to a repeal bill, dubbed “repeal-plus.”
  
  
• Why High-Risk Pools Won't Crack the Preexisting Condition Dilemma Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer—Some Republican leaders are promoting state high-risk pools as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act's popular provision requiring health plans to accept consumers regardless of preexisting medical conditions. They cite Wisconsin's pre-ACA pool, the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan, as a model. But a Wisconsin insurance official recently cautioned a House panel that high-risk pools need a stable funding source and are not a solution for every state. Other experts say state high-risk pools generally were a policy failure across the country, and making them work properly would require a large amount of taxpayer funding.
  
  
• IRS Won’t Withhold Tax Refunds If Americans Ignore ACA Insurance Requirement Washington Post by Amy Goldstein—The Trump administration is taking its first steps to put its imprint on the Affordable Care Act, reversing plans to withhold tax refunds this year from Americans who flout an insurance requirement in the law while proposing a series of rule changes to encourage insurers to remain in ACA marketplaces. The Internal Revenue Service has revoked an Obama-era instruction to taxpayers that was taking effect during the current filing season as a way to further compliance with the ACA’s requirement that most Americans carry health insurance or pay a tax penalty. 

• Republicans Eye Medicaid Cuts to Help Finance Their New Health Plan Fiscal Times by Eric Pianin—Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said on Thursday that House GOP leaders and strategists were closing in on a plan to repeal and partially replace the Affordable Care Act with a series of dramatic changes, including revamping and reducing the Medicaid program for low-income Americans, a refundable tax credit to help consumers cover premium costs, and other changes to encourage competition among insurers and bring down cost. One of the most controversial issues is how the Republicans will treat Medicaid as part of their overall effort to replace Obamacare.
  
  
• GOP Considers Medicaid Reforms for Reconciliation Bill Morning Consult by Mary Ellen Mcintire—House Republicans are weighing specific reforms to Medicaid that could be included in a reconciliation measure to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. How to deal with the federal expansion of Medicaid under the ACA is one of the main unanswered questions as Congress works to overhaul Obamacare—one that has exposed divisions between the House’s most conservative members and GOP lawmakers from states that chose to expand the federal program for low-income Americans.
  
  
• GOP May Boost Medicaid Spending in Order to Slash the Program Politico by Jennifer Haberkorn and Rachana Pradhan—Republicans determined to cut Medicaid may first have to pour more money into it, to keep the peace between Republican governors who expanded health care for low-income people under Obamacare and those who resisted. It’s all part of the GOP’s long-term plan to dramatically revamp the health care entitlement for the poor in order to cap what they see as runaway federal spending. 
  
  
• Trump Nominee Has Decried Medicaid for Fostering Dependency AP by Carla Johnson—The businesswoman President Donald Trump selected to oversee Medicaid, the health care program for 74 million low-income Americans, has said the program is structurally flawed by policies that burden states and foster dependency among the poor. 

• Angry Town Hall Meetings on Health Care Law, and Few Answers New York Times by Thomas Kaplan—Michelle Roelandts had a question for her congressman: If the Affordable Care Act and its premium subsidies were repealed, what would happen when her daughter turns 26 this year and needs to get her own health insurance while attending law school? Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, a durable Wisconsin Republican who has served in the House since 1979, had little to offer in response. “If I could give you an answer today, I would, but I can’t,” Mr. Sensenbrenner said at a town-hall-style meeting on Saturday, where about 70 people packed a room at the Pewaukee Public Library.
  
  
• GOP Chairman: Town Hall Protests Won't Alter Obamacare Repeal Plans The Hill by Peter Sullivan—House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Monday that crowds of people at town halls across the country worried about the fate of Obamacare will not alter Republican plans to repeal and replace the law. Brady, a key player on healthcare, was asked by reporters if the pro-Obamacare sentiment at town halls would have any impact on the Republican push to repeal and replace. "I don't think it will,” Brady replied.

• White House Proposes New Rules to Steady Insurance Markets Under Health Law New York Times by Robert Pear—The Trump administration proposed new rules on Wednesday to stabilize health insurance markets roiled by efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, by big increases in premiums and by the exodus of major insurers. The move came a day after Humana announced that, starting next year, it would completely withdraw from the public marketplaces created by former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. 
  
  
• Two Big Insurance Breakups on Valentine's Day AP by Tom Murphy—It was a rough day for the already-roiled U.S. health insurance market: One giant merger was abandoned, another is threatened by infighting, and a major insurer announced it will stop selling coverage on public exchanges in 11 states. Both merger deals had already been rejected by federal regulators and judges, but the companies were considering appeals to those decisions. Now they both appear to be off. 
  
  
• Amid Obamacare Uncertainty, Insurance Giant Humana Plans to Leave Marketplaces in 2018 Los Angeles Times by Noam N. Levey and Melody Petersen—Humana Inc., one of the nation’s largest health insurers, will stop selling Obamacare health plans next year, the company announced Tuesday. The move threatens to rattle jittery insurance markets and further complicate Republicans’ push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The company attributed its action to mounting losses caused by sicker-than-expected consumers. 

• Studies Underscore Importance of Nuances, Time in Judging ACOs Modern Healthcare by Elizabeth Whitman—In the ongoing debate over how accountable care organizations can lower costs and improve health, two new studies offer insights into the nuances of how ACOs affect spending, utilization and quality. Authors of both studies emphasized the importance of time in assessing the effectiveness of ACOs. But this resource is in short supply as President Donald Trump and his new health secretary, Tom Price, look to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which launched numerous initiatives to pay for healthcare on the basis of value, not volume.