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Senate Democrats will never vote to repeal Obamacare. But once the deed is done, a surprising number of them say they’re open to helping Republicans replace it. “If it makes sense, I think there’ll be a lot of Democrats who would be for it,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). As Republicans aim to make good on their years-long vow to quash Obamacare and replace it with their own health care vision, they’ll have to do something Democrats were never able to: Bring members of the opposing party on board. (Everett and Haberkorn, 12/15)

The nation’s top health official is giving her starkest post-election outlook yet about the fate of ObamaCare, warning that the GOP’s plan will immediately unravel the insurance marketplace. “The idea of ‘repeal and replace’ is really, ‘repeal and collapse,’” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in an interview with "PBS Newshour" this week. Burwell, who has largely stayed out of the spotlight since the election, is now emerging as a vocal critic of the GOP’s push to sign a repeal bill within Donald Trump’s first 100 days as president. (Ferris, 12/14)

Taxpayers will fork over nearly $10 billion more next year to cover double-digit premium hikes for subsidized health insurance under President Barack Obama's law, according to a study being released Thursday. The analysis from the Center for Health and Economy comes as the Republican-led Congress is preparing to repeal "Obamacare" and replace it with a GOP alternative whose details have yet to be worked out. (12/15)

The Republicans are committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate will vote in early January to repeal the law, and then it will figure out what to replace it with. (Hobson, 12/14)

A contingent of state senators and other officials, led by Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, arrives in Minneapolis Thursday (forecast: partly cloudy with a high of 6 degrees) for two days of meetings with public officials, academic researchers, and health care executives. It’s part of a broader investigation of whether Massachusetts needs new legislation to curb rising medical spending. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/14)

Congressional Republicans' plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act could threaten New Orleans' unique system of primary care clinics, which Mayor Mitch Landrieu believes should be a national model for delivering urban health care. Long funded under a stopgap stream of federal funding that was never intended to be permanent, Medicaid expansion has provided the clinics with a stable source of money that was thought to be a long-term solution. But now that Congressional Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump have begun discussing the possibility of rolling back Medicaid and Medicare funding, and repealing the law that provides for lower-cost health insurance through Healthcare.gov, the mayor and clinic leaders see the long-term strategy as fraught with uncertainty. (Litten, 12/14)