The Trump administration announced a new policy on Monday making it easier for states to circumvent coverage requirements and consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act. States could, for example, use federal funds to subsidize short-term insurance plans with fewer protections for people with preexisting conditions. Coming two weeks before Election Day, the new policy appeared to be a political gift to Democrats, who are making health care a potent campaign theme. (Robert Pear, New York Times)

The Trump administration is rolling out new options for small employers to use tax-free accounts for providing health coverage to workers, officials said Monday. The idea is to expand so-called “health reimbursement arrangements” to allow employees to buy their own individual health insurance policies. Employers could also pair the accounts with workplace health plans, allowing workers to use the money for additional benefits such as dental care. Officials from the departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services provided a broad overview of the proposed regulations Monday evening ahead of an official announcement, expected Tuesday. Critics say the approach will undermine traditional job-based coverage. (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press)

When the annual open enrollment period begins in a few days, consumers across the country will have more choices under the Affordable Care Act, but fewer sources of unbiased advice and assistance to guide them through the labyrinth of health insurance. The Trump administration has opened the door to aggressive marketing of short-term insurance plans, which are not required to cover preexisting medical conditions. (Robert Pear, New York Times)

President Trump celebrated with House Republicans in the White House Rose Garden last year when they passed a bill to undo the Affordable Care Act and its protection for Americans with preexisting medical conditions. On Wednesday, less than two weeks before the midterm elections, Trump falsely claimed that ensuring coverage for those with asthma, diabetes, pregnancy and other conditions was a Republican priority, rather than a Democratic one. (Felicia Sonmez and John Wagner, Washington Post)

President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a plan to overhaul how Medicare pays for certain drugs, attacking “foreign freeloaders” that he says have driven up costs in the U.S. The proposal would bypass Congress by using a pilot program to test three ways to lower the costs of drugs — including negotiating for some drugs directly administered by doctors to keep them in line with the far lower prices paid in many other countries, where governments often take an active role in setting prices. The proposal applies only to drugs administered in doctors’ offices and outpatient hospital departments — medicines like cancer treatments and injectable treatments for rheumatoid arthritis or eye conditions. (Sarah Karlin-Smith and Dan Diamond, Politico)

The Trump administration faces a lengthy battle to make its plan to lower Medicare drug costs a reality, with resistance coming from its own party, Democrats, and large segments of the health care industry. Conservatives and the drug industry say it’s tantamount to government price controls and socialized medicine. Democrats are beating up the president for not going far enough, and doctors are worried their patients could lose access to critical medicines. Any rewards likely won’t materialize for years. (Sarah Karlin-Smith, Politico)

For years, elected leaders in conservative states have resisted expanding Medicaid, the government health program for low-income Americans. Now voters in four of those states will decide the question directly. Ballot initiatives in Idaho, Utah, Nebraska, and Montana will test whether there’s a disconnect between politicians and voters over a program that insures one in five Americans at an annual cost of more than half a trillion dollars to federal and state governments. Ballot initiatives “are so powerful because they strip away from the partisanship and the tribalism that dominates so much of our politics,” said Jonathan Schliefer, executive director of The Fairness Project. “When it comes to health care, the biggest gap isn’t between Republicans and Democrats. It’s between politicians and everyone else,” he said. (John Tozzi, Bloomberg News)

The majority of Nebraskans want to expand Medicaid, and it's on their midterm ballots this November. But four years into the implementation of Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, hospitals in the Cornhusker State have tempered their expectations of how much the expansion will boost their margins. (Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare)

The Maine Attorney General’s Office has filed a brief supporting the lawsuit by Maine Equal Justice Partners that accuses the LePage administration of breaking the law by continuing to block the expansion of Medicaid coverage for more than 70,000 low-income Mainers. The amicus curiae brief, which was submitted in Kennebec County Superior Court on Oct. 17, was signed by Chief Deputy Attorney General Linda M. Pistner and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan R. Bolton. Attorney General Janet Mills, the Democratic candidate running for governor, is not named in the filing. (Dennis Hoey, Portland Press Herald)

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to put an “extremely big dent” in the scourge of drug addiction in America as he signed legislation intended to help tackle the opioid crisis, the deadliest epidemic of overdoses in the country’s history. The legislation will add treatment options and get the U.S. Postal Service to screen overseas packages for a synthetic form of opioids called fentanyl that are being shipped largely from China. The measure mandates advance electronic data on all international packages, including those delivered by the Postal Service, and set deadlines for the screening to be put into place by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection and the Postal Service. (Associated Press)

With the federal deficit growing and President Trump suddenly talking about another tax cut, the conversation in Washington has turned to the inevitable question of how — or whether — Congress will engage in any type of fiscal discipline. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader and Kentucky Republican, got people in Washington talking — and generated some new campaign ads from Democrats — when he suggested this month that changes to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid were needed to tame the deficit. (Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times)

L.G.B.T. activists mobilized a fast and fierce campaign that included a protest outside the White House on Monday to say transgender people cannot be expunged from society, in response to an unreleased Trump administration memo that proposes a strict definition of gender based on a person’s genitalia at birth. The existence of the draft memo, the administration’s latest effort to roll back the recognition and protection of transgender people under federal civil rights law, was reported by the New York Times on Sunday morning. (Sarah Mervosh and Christine Hauser, New York Times)