"I don't see a comprehensive health care plan this year." 

• Obamacare Repeal Legislation Could Bring "Junk Insurance" to Millions McClatchy by Tony Pugh—If certain parts of the House Republican health care bill become law, states that opt out of Obamacare protections could see an explosion of "junk insurance" in their individual markets—which could leave millions of people with very little coverage. Such plans often can be dirt-cheap, but they offer so few benefits that the recent Congressional Budget Office score on the Republicans' American Health Care Act said such coverage basically amounted to no coverage at all. Junk insurance can include several types of health care coverage: limited-benefit, specified disease plans that cover only certain diseases; supplemental plans that cover only the expenses another policy doesn't; and fixed-dollar indemnity plans that provide a specified amount per day toward medical costs.
  
  
• The GOP's Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Leave Millions of Women Uninsured ABC News by Pryia Raja—The Republican health care bill currently making its way through Congress could have a major impact on how many people have access to health services through Medicaid—changes that would fall disproportionately on women. Today, more than 17 million women in the U.S. aged 18 to 64 have health insurance because of Medicaid, according to data from the National Women's Law Center. Nearly a fourth of these women gained access to health insurance for the first time as a result of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that passed in 2010. Just within the first two years of expansion, nearly four million women were newly insured through Medicaid between 2013 and 2015—women who are now at risk of losing health care coverage.
  
  
• First, Do Some Harm—Before Republicans Replace Obamacare, The White House Is Killing It The Economist—Eighteen million Americans buy insurance on the individual market. It may collapse—whether or not their bid to reform health care succeeds, Republicans think Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will founder. For years, critics of the law have said that its health-insurance markets will enter a "death spiral" in which rising premiums drive out healthy buyers, forcing premiums higher still. "Obamacare is absolutely dead," President Donald Trump told The Economist on May 4th. If he is right, calamity looms. Mr Trump thinks its collapse would force Democrats to join his reform effort. And he is putting his money where his mouth is. Indeed, his administration is part of the problem.
  
  
• Neediest Texans Could Lose Billions in Medicaid Coverage Under Trump Budget, Obamacare Overhaul Dallas Morning News by Katie Leslie—President Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to leave Medicaid untouched. But in his first major budget proposal, the president has laid out a plan to reduce Medicaid spending by more than $600 billion over the next decade. Coupled with the Obamacare overhaul House Republicans passed in May, which would reduce Medicaid spending by more than $830 billion over the same period, Texas could lose billions in coverage, with its neediest feeling the pain. Millions of low-income children in the state, as well as seniors and people with disabilities, will bear the brunt of those reductions if they come to pass, warned Anne Dunkelberg, a former Texas Medicaid official with the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities.

• White House Acts to Roll Back Birth-Control Mandate for Religious Employers New York Times by Robert Pear—Federal officials, following through on a pledge by President Trump, have drafted a rule to roll back a federal requirement that many religious employers provide birth control coverage in health insurance plans. The mandate for free contraceptive coverage was one of the most hotly contested Obama administration policies adopted under the Affordable Care Act, and it generated scores of lawsuits by employers that had religious objections to it. Because the policy change is embodied in an interim final rule, it could take effect immediately upon publication in the Federal Register. When agencies issue interim final rules, however, they typically invite public comments and can later revise the rules in light of those comments. 

• The Fate of 16.8 Million Medicaid Enrollees Rests on 20 GOP Senators from 14 States Huffington Post by Jeffrey Young and Alissa Scheller—The Senate is on the verge of debating legislation to repeal and "replace" the Affordable Care Act, and Medicaid is on the chopping block. Whatever happens next with Obamacare repeal and the future of Medicaid will depend in large measure on whether GOP senators choose to fight for the combined 16.8 million of their constituents on Medicaid, including 4.3 million who gained Medicaid coverage because of the Affordable Care Act, according to data from state agencies compiled by HuffPost. More than 30 percent of those living in Sen. John Kennedy's Louisiana, Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton's Arkansas, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul's Kentucky are Medicaid beneficiaries. More than one-fifth of those living in eight of the other states with Republicans senators are enrolled in Medicaid.

• A Look at Major Drug-Pricing Proposals The New York Times by Katie Thomas—Several bills that seek to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs are moving through Congress, and the Trump administration has also signaled that it may take action.. Here's a list of the major drug-pricing proposals under consideration: speeding approval of generic drugs; requiring notice when drug prices go up; importing drugs from outside the United States; requiring pharmacy benefit managers to be more transparent; and allowing the government to negotiate the price of drugs covered by Medicare.
  
  
• Trump's Quiet on Drug Pricing, but His FDA Isn't Bloomberg by Max Nisen—Scott Gottlieb, the Trump administration's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, generally gets a big thumbs-up from the pharmaceutical industry. But he may end up making some drugmakers unhappy. An ex-FDA official, physician, industry consultant, and biotech investor, Gottlieb is seen as industry friendly and was certainly preferable to some other less experienced and more extreme candidates the White House floated. But he seems to have a mandate that includes getting drug prices under control , a topic he mentioned in his initial remarks to FDA staff on May 15.
  
  
• Mylan May Have Overcharged Taxpayers by $1.27 Billion for EpiPen Bloomberg by Cynthia Koons—U.S. taxpayers may have overpaid for Mylan NV's EpiPen shot by as much as $1.27 billion over the last decade, according to a U.S. government report. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, on Wednesday posted a copy of a report by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General. The report says that Mylan, by classifying EpiPen as a generic drug rather than a brand-name product, shortchanged the Medicaid program for the poor. Under Medicaid, makers of brand-name drugs must provide deep discounts on their products. In October, Mylan said it reached a settlement with the U.S. to pay $465 million for misclassifying the drug as a generic product, which doesn't require the same discounts. Grassley has been critical of the October settlement, calling it too small.

• For the First Time Ever, Less Than Half of Physicians Are Independent Modern Healthcare by Alex Kacik—Less than half of practicing physicians in the U.S. owned their medical practice in 2016, marking the first time that the majority of physicians are not practice owners, according to a new study. Only 47.1 percent of physicians in 2016 had ownership stakes in a medical practice, an American Medical Association study released Wednesday found. That's down from 53.2 percent in 2012, and research shows that doctors, especially young doctors, have been shifting from owning their own practice to joining larger practices. Ownership and employment shifts reflect the industry's increasing compliance costs and new payment models, research shows. Maintaining the necessary information technology and quality and safety compliance often require a larger asset base to spread costs. Payment reforms like accountable care organizations value an integrated care model, which is why independent physicians have gave way to larger systems, health care experts said. 

Editor: Peter Van Vranken