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Let’s give Donald Trump, who will be sworn in Friday as the 45th president of the United States, the benefit of the doubt. Let’s take him at his word that he has a plan to provide “insurance for everybody” that is “much less expensive and much better,” as he said in an interview with the Washington Post. How will he do it? Trump didn’t reveal any details .... So I turned to several prominent healthcare experts — people who, unlike Trump, have spent many years studying this stuff — and asked how you’d cover everyone and do it better than current insurance plans and for less money. The experts were unanimous. It can’t be done. (David Lazarus, 1/20)

Whenever I think of our current health insurance system, I’m reminded of Jenga, the old wooden block-stacking game. Shifting just one piece of the shaky tower can result in collapse. As Congress proceeds toward repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, it would do well to keep Jenga in mind and carefully consider which pieces should stay while moving to keep the tower standing. (B. Douglas Hoey, 1/20)

Tea-leaf readers, stop straining those prophetic eyeballs: The future of Republican health-care policy will be just as clear if you stare into a random pile of vegetable matter. Trump is a cipher, having clearly never given the matter much thought himself; congressional Republicans want to repeal Obamacare to please their base, but somehow do it without upsetting the people who will thereby lose coverage. In between them is the nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, a man of firm convictions, but unclear mandate to enact his ideas. (Megan McArdle, 1/19)

I continue to believe that repeal of large chunks of the Affordable Care Act remains likely to happen within the next few weeks or months. But that doesn’t mean Republicans are winning the public argument over it. Indeed, the most likely outcome at this point is that Republicans end up forging ahead with repeal even though the politics of it have shifted against them. (Greg Sargent, 1/19)

As confirmation hearings began for President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Congressman Tom Price, questions remained on healthcare reform and his vision for Trumpcare. Those issues merit top billing, but there are other important policy questions for Price outside the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And history says that these issues are likely to be as important, time consuming, political capital using and complex as the ACA agenda they arrive with. (Bob Kocher and David Beier, 1/19)

There were several exchanges that went viral from Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. One of them came when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tried to pin Price down on a simple question: “Is health care a right?” (James Downie, 1/19)

As Congress and the Trump-administration-to-be scope out possibilities for replacing The Affordable Care Act, here’s one area that needs attention stat: getting vulnerable Americans better health information about their options and costs and treating them with more respect. Findings from a new study on the subject could make your blood boil. “We’re not suffering from a lack of health care information,” says Chris Duke, research director of Right Place, Right Time: Improving Access to Health Care Information for Vulnerable Patients. “There’s a lack of targeted health care information. We need to move toward a system that pushes relevant, salient information to people at the right place and the right time.” (Richard Eisenberg, 1/19)

At a House Budget Committee hearing last fall on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), members of the majority expressed strong criticism of how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores Medicare demonstration projects, continuing a long-running debate over CBO’s methods. Committee Chair Tom Price (R-GA), President-elect Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, criticized CBO’s admitted inability to predict “which, if any, of the current demonstration projects CMMI has embarked upon will result in savings.” CBO plays an important role in the policy process. ... CBO certainly should (and, in fact, does) work to constantly improve its ability to develop reliable estimates. But all too often, criticisms of CBO’s methods are motivated by a misunderstanding of what CBO can and cannot be expected to do. (Stuart Guterman, 1/19)