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The day after [Jason] Chaffetz spoke, the Utah Republican walked this hateful and hate-filled statement back. But we know that such retractions are only the sleazy “part two” of an utterly cynical smear campaign.It’s open season now on all vulnerable groups, and taking target practice on poor people — who have absolutely no way to voice their point of view as widely as the congressman — is an old trick that doesn’t get any more appetizing when the accusations are updated from Cadillacs to iPhones. (Janna Malamud Smith, 3/15)

Last week, during a committee hearing on the Republicans’ health-care plan, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) asked Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) to name a mandated benefit in the Affordable Care Act to which he objected. Shimkus replied: “What about men having to purchase prenatal care?” Shimkus is probably not the only member in Congress who believes that forcing men to purchase health insurance that includes maternal care is unfair; it represents what some have characterized as a war on men, as several conservative health-policy wonks also have argued. (See, for example, Linda Gorman’s “Obamacare’s War on Men.”) (Tsung-Mei Cheng and Uwe Reinhardt, 3/14)

Can you hear it? No, you can’t. Ever since the Republicans released their health-care plan, there’s been a lot of noise. Of course, the Democratic opposition has been crying foul. Right-wingers are saying it doesn’t go far enough. Free marketers and the insurance industry worry that it doesn’t give enough freedom to insurance companies. Doctors are complaining that there won’t be enough insurance money available to pay their bills. Medical students think we should have a single-payer system. Some believe the legislation is being pushed through too fast. Others lament the lack of bipartisanship in the bill. The Congressional Budget Office concludes that millions will be left without coverage. Everyone seems to have a big problem with it. (Gene Marks, 3/14)

Not long after the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday that the House GOP leadership’s proposal to “repeal and replace” Obamacare would nearly double the number of uninsured Americans, President Trump held a meeting in the White House with about a dozen people he described as “victims” of President Obama’s 2010 healthcare law. (3/14)

Before Tom Price was Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, he was a conservative member of Congress. Before that, he was a mustachioed orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia. For the sake of all that’s healthy, let’s hope that in his doctor days, Tom Price focused on the surgery and let his partners tell the patient the bad news. (Patricia Murphy, 3/15)