"The Trump administration has expanded junk insurance plans. These plans are cheap for a reason. They do not have to provide essential health benefits like hospitalization, prescription drugs, and maternity care." — Senator Tammy Baldwin, (D-Wis.)

Average rates for popular health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act will fall 1.5 percent next year, according to the Trump administration, the first such drop and a sign that the insurance markets are gaining firmer traction despite tumult in the past two years. The decrease will affect average premiums for the second-cheapest plans in the "silver" tier, a middle-cost option, after years of double-digit increases. (Stephanie Armour and Anna Wilde Mathews, Wall Street Journal)

The Trump administration is planning hours-long downtimes for maintenance on healthcare.gov during the coming Obamacare sign-up period. The administration drew criticism for a similar move last year from advocates who said the downtime would hinder efforts to sign people up for coverage, but the administration counters that maintenance downtime happens every year and is designed to occur during the slowest periods on the site. (Peter Sullivan, The Hill)

Low-income people in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid are much more likely to forgo needed medical care than the poor in other states, according to a government report due out Monday amid election debates from Georgia to Utah over coverage for the needy. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office worked with the National Center for Health Statistics to analyze federal survey data from 2016. (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press)

President Trump signed bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that would free pharmacists to tell consumers when they could actually save money by paying the full cash price for prescription drugs rather than using health insurance with large copayments, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket costs. The legislation on gag clauses has been praised by lawmakers in both parties, but the signing was nearly eclipsed on Wednesday by a separate health care furor: Mr. Trump asserted in an essay in USA Today that Democrats supporting "Medicare for All" would wreck the program for older Americans, infuriating Democrats who said he was lying to millions of Americans.  (Robert Pear, New York Times)

Doctors, when surveyed, say they are opposed to the very idea of skewing their prescribing practice in favor of companies giving them money. The problem is, they still take lots of money in the form of honoraria, speaking fees, research grants, and outright gifts from pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Research suggests they can then fail to recognize that they've been influenced. Reciprocity is a part of human nature, and field studies have shown that doctors change their practices to reciprocate gifts and favors. (Faye Flam, Bloomberg News)

One of the nation's largest health insurers will use "step therapy" in some of its private Medicare plans next year, requiring patients to try cheaper drugs before pricey biologics and other costly medicines. The decision by UnitedHealthcare is among the first signs that insurers plan to take advantage of a Trump administration initiative that policymakers argue will bring down drug costs for consumers. (Ike Swetlitz, STAT)

The Trump administration will require drug companies to post their list prices in consumer ads under a proposal to be announced next week — a prominent part of its drug price agenda, according to four individuals with knowledge of the plan. s. But experts caution that the impact may be relatively insignificant and it could even confuse patients, considering the complexities of drug pricing. (Dan Diamond and Sarah Karlin-Smith, Politico)

The Justice Department's approval of the $69 billion merger between CVS Health and Aetna on Wednesday caps a wave of consolidation among giant health care players that could leave American consumers with less control over their medical care and prescription drugs. The approval marks the close of an era, during which powerful pharmacy benefit managers brokered drug prices among pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and employers. But a combined CVS-Aetna may be even more formidable. (Reed Abelson, New York Times)

A long-shot bid to derail the Trump administration's expansion of short-term health plans died in the Senate on Wednesday, even with Sen. Susan Collins providing the lone Republican vote for the resolution. The Senate vote ended in a 50-50 tie, falling short of the majority needed to pass the measure reversing new regulations allowing insurers to sell skimpy health plans outside the Obamacare markets for up to a year, rather than the previous limit of three months. (Adam Cancryn and Alice Miranda Ollstein, Politico)

While Democratic enthusiasm this year has largely been fueled by anger toward President Donald Trump, candidates have targeted their messaging to focus more on health care. It’s the subject of the greatest share of political ads on television now, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, and a top issue in campaigns from Virginia to Arkansas to California — and especially in Arizona, where Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema has made it the foundation of her Senate campaign against McSally.  (Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press)

Dozens of vulnerable House Republicans have recently signed on to bills or resolutions in support of preexisting conditions protections, part of an eleventh-hour attempt to demonstrate their affinity for one of Obamacare’s most popular provisions. Thirty-two of the 49 GOP incumbents in races deemed competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report have backed congressional measures on preexisting conditions in the past six weeks, according to an analysis by The Hill. (Jessie Hellmann, The Hill)