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The battle between congressional Republicans and the White House over the Affordable Care Act is again escalating—in court and on Capitol Hill. The administration on Wednesday appealed a federal trial judge’s ruling that the government is improperly reimbursing insurers under a program to cover discounts for low-income consumers. And House Republicans on Thursday began two days of hearings to hammer away at the issue. They released a report that said the administration distributed the funds even though it was aware it needed Congress’s approval. (Armour, 7/7)

Ever since the Supreme Court slapped away a direct challenge to the Affordable Care Act, opponents of the law have turned to collateral attacks on it’s implementation by the HHS as a possible way to paralyze and eventually kill the law. Two of these attacks recently reached the federal appeals court in Washington D.C. (Loughran, 7/7)

House Republicans on Thursday released an investigative report and held the first of two hearings questioning the legality of Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction program. That program is also the subject of a House lawsuit against the administration. ... The cost-sharing reduction program was included in the Affordable Care Act as one of two ways to relieve the cost burden for low-income enrollees on the individual market. The other method is premium tax credits for those falling between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. (Owens, 7/7)

An investigation by House Republicans argues that the Obama administration is illegally making certain payments under ObamaCare and that officials initially recognized they did not have authority to do so before reversing course. House Republicans argue that the administration is unconstitutionally making ObamaCare’s “cost sharing reduction” payments to insurers — which help lower out-of-pocket healthcare costs for low-income ObamaCare enrollees — without a congressional appropriation. (Sullivan, 7/7)

Donald Trump's health care plan would make 18 million people uninsured, but also lower premiums significantly for policies purchased directly by consumers, according to an independent study released Thursday. The new policies would be stingier than what's sold now. Trump's plan would have little effect on people covered by employers and those on Medicare. But millions of low-income adults covered by the Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama's health care law would lose newly gained benefits. Separately, taxpayers might save money because the government no longer would have to subsidize insurance for millions of citizens. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/7)

Thanks in part to federal grants awarded under the Affordable Care Act, the number of community health workers is growing. In 2015, there were 48,000 of them working in the U.S., up from 38,000 three years earlier, a 27 percent increase, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But many insurers still don’t cover their services, limiting their potential impact. (Ollove, 7/8)

In the wake of a state order halting new enrollment in Connecticut's co-op health insurer, HealthyCT, the state's health insurance exchange faces growing challenges as it prepares to lose two of its four carriers. The exchange, Access Health CT, has been widely heralded as one of the strongest state health insurance exchanges in the country, but loss of the two insurers will limit the options available to customers in search of health insurance. Officials at the exchange remain optimistic, although they concede the next two years will be volatile. (Constable, 7/8)