Â鶹ŮÓÅ

Republicans left Washington on Friday without a health-care deal, despite renewed negotiations after last month’s fiasco and a burst of White House diplomacy. Perhaps the two-week recess will be a cooling-off period and we hope the House’s factions can agree on a deal. If they can’t, then at least we’ll learn who’s responsible for defeat. (4/9)

When Congress and the Obama administration sought to reform the healthcare system in 2009, they focused on insuring more people, lowering the cost of care and raising the quality. The Trump administration appears to be aiming at a different target: reducing the cost of insurance for healthy people. That may sound like a fine goal, but the administration is going about it the wrong way — by returning us to the bad old days when sick people had to pay exorbitant premiums, if they could get coverage at all. (4/10)

There is a simple explanation for why Republicans in Congress can’t agree, even among themselves, how to replace Obamacare, as demonstrated once again this week. On the most fundamental question — whether medical care is a right that should be guaranteed to all citizens, or merely another consumer good — the party’s elected representatives are hopelessly conflicted. (Steven Pearlstein, 4/7)

This attack on the ACA never was based on facts. But a new report from the Altarum Institute, a nonprofit healthcare think tank in Ann Arbor, Mich., adds evidence that, in fact, the law is a job-creator. From 2014 through 2016, the researchers found, the law triggered the creation of 240,000 jobs in the healthcare field alone. The main reason is that increased insurance enrollments spurred more demand for healthcare services. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/7)

Election Day 2016 should have been Christmas morning for Republicans. Long awaited control of the White House and both houses of Congress. A chance to deliver on an every two-year election cycle promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. In 2010 Republicans needed the House. They got it. In 2014, it was the Senate. Delivered. But we still need the White House they said. Asked and answered with President Donald Trump. So, what happened a few weeks ago when the House bill fizzled like a North Korean missile launch? (Brian Joondeph, 4/8)

If carriers from other states decide to open up their coverage to Kentucky residents you can be sure that they will first understand the risk. Correctly calculating risk and properly managing it are the only ways that insurance companies make money. And all cynicism aside, we depend on insurance companies to make money. After all, there are no provisions in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) or in any of the Republican replacement proposals that allow insurance companies to print money. What does all of this have to do with selling across state lines? Nothing. That is unless you depend on it to reduce insurance prices. It won’t. Health-care costs determine risk and risk determines almost all of what goes into insurance rates. (Jim Lawless, 4/7)

Though Via Christi Health is disappointed in the governor’s veto of House Bill 2044, and last week’s close House vote to sustain it, we are pleased that an overwhelming number of lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted in support of KanCare expansion. The courage these lawmakers demonstrated by supporting this issue will not be lost on us or the 82 percent of Kansans who support the expansion. The Legislature is only beginning to formalize a budget, and we continue to believe our budget-neutral approach to KanCare expansion remains important to those conversations. (Mike Mullins, 4/8)

Can you imagine if state lawmakers wanted to tax private schools to balance the public school budget? Texans would be outraged by such an absurd proposal. This outrageous scheme is precisely what some lawmakers want to do with nursing homes. They want to tax private-pay nursing homes to pay for Medicaid nursing homes. (George Linial, 4/9)