• House Passes Measure to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) New York Times by Thomas Kaplan and Robert Pear—The House on Thursday narrowly approved legislation to repeal and replace major parts of the ACA, as Republicans recovered from their earlier failures and moved a step closer to delivering on their promise to reshape American health care without mandated insurance coverage. The vote, 217 to 213, held on President Trump's 105th day in office, is a significant step on what could be a long legislative road. Twenty Republicans bolted from their leadership to vote no. But the win keeps alive the party's dream of unwinding President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement.
  
  
• Republicans Didn't Like Their Health Care Bill But Voted for It Anyway Washington Post by Paul Kane—Republicans pushed a health care bill through the House Thursday that few lawmakers truly liked. They instead viewed the measure as a necessary step to demonstrate some sense of momentum and some ability to govern in GOP-controlled Washington.  Rather than embrace policy cobbled together to replace the 2010 ACA, many Republicans simply decided the best move was to approve a flawed bill—and ram it through a flawed process—so that the Senate would get a chance to fix the House's mistakes, setting up a major negotiation later.
  
  
• The Next Step for the Republican Health Care Bill: A Skeptical Senate New York Times by Matt Flegenheimer—As House Republicans on Thursday shoved their health care bill across the finish line, stuffing it with amendments and extra dollars to secure a hard-won majority, the lawmakers who will inherit the legislation delivered their own message from across the Capitol: That's cute. On the Senate side, where several Republicans have long been deeply skeptical of the House effort, the bill is expected to undergo sweeping changes that might leave it unrecognizable—perhaps stripping away some of the provisions that helped earn the support of hard-right House members and ultimately secure its passage.

• A Side-by-Side Comparison of Obamacare and the GOP's Replacement Plan Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey and Kyle Kim—Here's how the proposed Republican American Health Care Act—along with an amendment introduced this week—compares to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. 
  
  
• Who Wins and Who Loses in the Latest G.O.P. Health Care Bill New York Times by Margot Sanger-Katz—WINNERS: High-income earners; upper-middle-class people without preexisting health conditions; young, middle-class people without preexisting health conditions; people who wish to go without insurance; people who want less comprehensive health coverage; large employers; medical device companies, and indoor tanning companies and a few other medical industries. LOSERS: Poor people; older Americans, in most states; people with preexisting health conditions, particularly in some states; state governments; hospitals; and Planned Parenthood. 

• Deep-Pocketed Health Care Lobbies Line Up Against Trump Politico by Adam Cancryn, Sarah Karlin-Smith, and Paul Demko—Just about every major health care group opposes President Donald Trump's health care overhaul—and the self-styled negotiator-in-chief hasn't tried cutting a deal with them. Hospitals and doctors are actively engaged in efforts to kill Trump's plan, fearful that its severe cuts to Medicaid and insurance subsidies will wreak havoc on their bottom lines. Patient advocates object to again allowing insurers to charge sick people more. Notably, insurers are largely avoiding this battle, focusing instead on pressuring Republicans to keep paying out Obamacare subsidies.
  
  
• Health Insurers Focused on 2018 Unknowns for Obamacare Market Reuters by Caroline Humer—While attention is focused on Republicans' fight to pass a bill to repeal Obamacare starting in 2019, health insurers are busy struggling with decisions they need to make now about how to price premiums and what markets they can afford to be in next year. Hospitals are on the other side of that coin, concerned that a spike in the cost of Obamacare premiums next year will cause many people to simply drop insurance coverage, reducing their revenues in the near future.

• Survey: Medicaid Enrollees Report Lower Financial Burden Than Privately Insured Fierce Healthcare by Paige Minemyer—People enrolled in Medicaid plans have similar care access levels to people with private insurance and report an easier time paying medical bills than those people, according to a new survey. The Commonwealth Fund's Biennial Health Insurance Survey polled a representative sample of 6,005 American adults and found that Medicaid enrollees have significantly better access to care and reduced financial burdens compared to the uninsured. About 57 percent of surveyed Medicaid patients rated their care over the past year as excellent or very good, compared to about 52 percent of the privately insured and 40 percent of the uninsured.

• How the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Drove Down Personal Bankruptcy Consumer Reports by Allen St. John—Since the ACA's adoption, far fewer Americans have taken the extreme step of filing for personal bankruptcy. Filings have dropped about 50 percent, from 1,536,799 in 2010 to 770,846 in 2016. 
  
  
• Study: Increased Insurance Coverage Didn't Reduce Access to Care Morning Consult by Mary Ellen Mcintire—More people getting health insurance under the ACA didn't lead to challenges in accessing care for those who were already insured, a new Health Affairs study shows. The findings could assuage concerns about how access to doctors was affected under the ACA. They suggest that having more insured people in a geographical area does not make it more difficult for others in the same area to access preventative care and specialists. 

• Life Expectancy Improves for Blacks, and the Racial Gap Is Closing, CDC Reports Washington Post by Joel Achenbach—African Americans have made significant gains in life expectancy, and the mortality gap between white and black Americans has been cut in half since 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Tuesday. Blacks experienced a 25 percent drop in their overall death rate, compared to a 14 percent decrease for whites, between 1999 and 2015. Deaths from heart disease, cancer, and stroke declined sharply among blacks 65 and older, and in that age group, blacks now have a lower death rate than whites, the CDC said.

Editor: Peter Van Vranken