"This is a test. It is a test of what kind of a people we are, and what kind of a country we are going to build. We are a people who believe that we help each other. We are a people that believe that health care is not reserved for the privileged few. We are a people that believe that health care is a basic human right."

—Senator Elizabeth Warren

• Senate Rejects Obamacare Repeal Politico by John Bresnahan, Burgess Everett, Jennifer Haberkorn, and Seung Min Kim  — The Senate Republicans’ push to dismantle Obamacare collapsed in dramatic fashion early Friday morning, when Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and John McCain of Arizona teamed to sink an already scaled-back effort to dismantle the 2010 health care law. The three GOP senators sided with all 48 Democrats to reject the Republicans’ so-called skinny repeal plan, tanking the measure by a vote of 49-51. The Senate GOP had already pretty much shunned the proposal, viewing it mostly as a route to go into negotiations with the House. The bizarre turn of events — GOP senators were gearing up to vote for a bill few if any of them actually support — came on a frenetic day of the Republican Party’s tortured bid to upend the Democratic health care law.
  
  

• How Democrats Won the Health Care War and How They Could Lose the Next One Politico Magazine by Bill Scher — "The mover on health care loses," Democratic operative James Carville said in January. "To do something is to lose." That cold-hearted political proverb has been repeatedly proven true, if the standard is short-term electoral gain. In terms of policy, it's another story. Now that Obamacare repeal has fizzled, Democrats have officially won the eight-year health care war. And so, after eight exasperating years of playing defense on health care, Democrats finally have some wind at their back. But where they take that momentum is far from clear, as Democratic factions with competing goals are bound to draw different lessons from their win.
  
  
• Timeline: Obamacare's History Littered with Near-Death Experiences Kaiser Health News by Julie Rovner — Few laws have defied as many existential threats as the Affordable Care Act. A few hours ago, it survived again. In seven years, it has been to the brink of elimination nearly a dozen times, only to rally back from seemingly impossible odds. Efforts to kill it have come from Congress (including one in 2015 that made it all the way to President Barack Obama's desk before being vetoed), the White House and the courts. The latest — a repeal bill in the Senate that fell apart, 51-49, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) casting a decisive vote — occurred Friday in the early morning hours. Here is a timeline of the ACA's "near-death" experiences, which occurred before the bill passed, during its implementation, and after benefits began to flow.
  
  
• House Soundly Rejects Conservative Bid to Enviscerate Congressional Budget Office McClatchy by Anshu Siripurapu — Conservative House Republicans, enraged by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) findings that Obamacare's repeal would leave millions without health care coverage, failed Wednesday in a bid to cut the agency's budget and staff, a move that would have dramatically weakened its effectiveness. The House rejected, 309–116, an effort by four conservative Republicans, including Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., to eliminate the CBO's Budget Analysis Division. Eighty-nine jobs would have been eliminated and the division would be transferred to the CBO director's office.

• One Insurer Is Making Obamacare Work Bloomberg by Zachary Tracer — Just hours before Senate Republicans are expected to take a crucial first vote on repealing Obamacare, one health insurer is saying that its big bet on the health insurance law has been paying off. Centene Corp. beat Wall Street's earnings estimates for the second quarter and said that much of its strength came from the company's Affordable Care Act marketplace health plans, where the insurer has about 1.1 million of its 12.2 million customers. "The marketplace business continues to be particularly strong, confirming our business-as-usual approach," Centene Chief Executive Officer Michael Neidorff said in a statement announcing the quarterly results.
  
  
• Unsure of the Future, States Guess Their Way Through 2018 Rate Filing Season Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson — Faced with uncertainty around the federal government's commitment to pay out funds meant to help consumers afford coverage on Affordable Care Act exchanges, state insurance commissioners are being put in the position to guess the future. If they make the wrong choice, their residents could find themselves without coverage and the ability to access care. States are now in the home stretch of finalizing rates for the upcoming 2018 open-enrollment period, but the Trump administration's pattern of funding cost-sharing reduction payments on a month-by-month basis has put state regulators and insurers in unknown — and somewhat uncomfortable — territory. "The administration controls the panic button," said Mike Rhoads, deputy commissioner of health insurance for Oklahoma. "They can simply discontinue all of a sudden these payments to plans."

• How Pricey Is Your Drug? These 10 Sold the Most in the U.S. Last Year Stat by Max Blau — A whopping $450 billion was spent in the United States on prescription drugs last year. Topping the list, perhaps unsurprisingly, are medications whose patents were still in force or had recently expired. When a patent expires, generic versions — or biosimilar versions of biologic drugs — can become available, driving down costs that in turn make them accessible to more patients.

Editor: Peter Van Vranken