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The House’s debate over repealing ObamaCare has had an unintended effect: Republicans are now defending key elements of President Obama’s health law. Many House Republicans are now defending ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, in the face of an effort by the conservative House Freedom Caucus to repeal them. (Sullivan, 4/9)

Something new is happening in a health care debate dominated for seven years by the twists and turns of Barack Obama's signature law. The focus has shifted to ideas from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers in Congress, and most people don't like what they see. With Republicans in command, their health care proposals as currently formulated have generated far more concern than enthusiasm. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Swanson, 4/10)

Moderate House Republicans who flirted with supporting the GOP's now-stalled Obamacare replacement will face attack ads in their districts this week for doing so. Save My Care, a coalition of left-leaning health care advocacy groups fighting to preserve Obamacare, is launching a seven-figure TV ad buy in seven competitive House districts across the country. (Cheney, 4/10)

A Republican health-care plan to lower insurance premiums would need to cut payments to hospitals and doctors to the same level as federally-set Medicare rates and would require billions of dollars in extra government spending to meet its goals, according to an independent analysis of the policy. (Tracer, 4/7)

A White House push to let states waive mandatory coverage and rate requirements under the Affordable Care Act could jeopardize health insurance gains for millions of adults with pre-existing medical conditions who went largely without coverage before the health law passed. This week, the White House tried to get Republicans in the House of Representatives to amend their Obamacare replacement bill with language that lets states opt out of two popular ACA provisions, including one that requires individual health plans to cover 10 so-called essential health benefits. (Pugh, 4/7)

After the collapse of the planned repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, local experts and advocates are both relieved that the law is intact and worried a shakeup is still on the horizon. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this,” said Angela Mattie, professor and chair of health care management and organizational leadership for Quinnipiac University. (Cuda, 4/7)

Political reporters were calling, crediting them with helping to bring down Republican legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Rachel Maddow made them the stars of a segment on her show, chronicling how they had grown into a “legitimate political movement” that pushed their congressman, the chairman of the influential Appropriations Committee, to come out against the bill hours before his party’s leadership decided to pull it without a vote. (Zernike, 4/9)

In contrast to the dire pronouncements from President Trump and other Republicans, the demise of the individual insurance market seems greatly exaggerated, according to a new financial analysis released Friday. The analysis, by Standard & Poor’s, looked at the performance of many Blue Cross plans in nearly three dozen states since President Barack Obama’s health care law took effect three years ago. (Abelson, 4/7)

Despite high premiums and diminished consumer choices that might deter consumers from enrolling in Obamacare, a new financial analysis concludes that the individual health insurance market has shaken off its early losses and will likely break even this year. The analysis by S&P Global Ratings of the performance of scores of Blue Cross plans in nearly three dozen states also predicts that insurance companies providing millions of Americans with subsidized coverage under Obamacare will begin showing modest profits in 2018. (Pianin, 4/9)

When patients walk into Dr. Michael Pramenko’s office in Grand Junction these days, they often walk in worried. Already, residents of Colorado’s Western Slope pay more for health insurance than just about anybody else in the country while also having a smaller selection of insurers to choose from. The Republicans’ health care bill in Congress — which may yet be revived — could up their costs even more. (Ingold, 4/10)

As plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act took center stage last month, job growth in the healthcare sector slowed significantly. The industry produced 13,500 new jobs in March, which is much less than the 31,400 new positions created in February, according to the most recent jobs report issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Castellucci, 4/7)

One day, Obamacare is dead. The next, it's alive. Trumpcare is on the agenda today. Tomorrow, it has been shelved. The future of health care reform in Washington for the moment remains undeniably unclear. So how do Michigan hospitals and health systems with thousands of newly insured patients plan ahead? (Dolan, 4/8)

The Iowa Hospital Association says it’s important not to lose the gains made under the Affordable Care Act. The warning comes after the insurance carriers Aetna and Wellmark announced this week that in 2018, they’ll stop selling individual policies on Iowa’s healthcare exchange created under the ACA. (Boden, 4/7)

Half a century after the United States led a global expansion of international efforts to combat infectious disease and promote family planning, the Trump administration has embarked on a historic retrenchment that many fear threatens the health of millions and jeopardizes America’s standing in the world. Since taking office, President Trump has proposed dramatic cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has historically spearheaded U.S. efforts to improve women’s and children’s health. (Levey, 4/10)

The Trump administration has failed to fill crucial public health positions across the government, leaving the nation ill-prepared to face one of its greatest potential threats: a pandemic outbreak of a deadly infectious disease, according to experts in health and national security. No one knows where or when the next outbreak will occur, but health security experts say it is inevitable. Every president since Ronald Reagan has faced threats from infectious diseases, and the number of outbreaks is on the rise. (Sun, 4/8)

A musical called “The Great Immensity” made its New York premiere in 2014, the product of nearly $700,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation. Aimed at increasing awareness of the widespread impacts of climate change, the musical featured one song that explained the emergence of the global economy and another on the extinction of the passenger pigeon. It was widely panned. The production, however, made a brief comeback earlier this year — not on stage, but in an outline of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s authorization and oversight plan. According to the committee, grant awards like the ones used to fund the musical necessitated a crackdown: Lawmakers must ensure that all grants serve “the national interest.” (Facher, 4/10)

The hiring freeze President Donald Trump ordered on his first full working day in the White House is threatening to compromise the safety of correctional officers, delay payments to veterans and prevent disabled and retired Americans from getting their Social Security checks on time, union officials and government workers say. (Reinhard and Ballhaus, 4/9)

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has frustrated legislators on both sides of the aisle with his refusal to talk specifics on several major issues he could rule on if he's confirmed. But one matter on which his past writings offer a detailed picture of his views is medical aid in dying, sometimes referred to as physician-assisted suicide. In 2006, Gorsuch wrote "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia," a 311-page book in which he "builds a nuanced, novel, and powerful moral and legal argument against legalization," the book proclaims on its back cover. Gorsuch also addressed questions on the polarizing issue during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings. (Tinker, 4/7)

The number of patients using the nation's first physician-aided suicide program, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, has continued to grow since voters first approved the law nearly two decades ago. A new study shows a 12 percent yearly increase in lethal prescriptions from 1998 to 2013, with an unexplained jump of nearly 30 percent in 2015. The research doesn't include 2016 numbers, which haven't been released yet. (Terry, 4/6)

Dr. Maximilian Muenke has a superpower: He can diagnose disease just by looking at a person’s face. Specifically, he can spot certain genetic disorders that make telltale impressions on facial features. “Once you’ve done it for a certain amount of years, you walk into a room and it’s like oh, that child has Williams Syndrome,” he said, referring to a genetic disorder that can affect a person’s cognitive abilities and heart. (Sheridan, 4/10)

WellCare Health Plans Inc., an insurer focused on Medicaid and Medicare patients, is building two AI systems – one for clinicians, one for patients – designed to analyze symptoms, demographics, medical histories, and other data sources to suggest treatment plans and interventions. The goal for both projects is to give field workers like visiting nurses, as well as patients themselves, mobile access to medical advice aimed at improving health. (Nash, 4/7)

Days after a bill was introduced to the Senate that would allow Medicare to test covering more telehealth models, the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee introduced a bill that would put more Medicare money into telemedicine. The sponsors of the bill—Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)—are seeking to improve the quality of care for chronically ill Medicare patients. (Arndt, 4/7)

The genetic testing company 23andMe received approval this week from regulators to sell genetic reports on an individual’s risk for 10 diseases, most prominently Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Before you send in your saliva sample and $199, here’s what you should know. (Begley, 4/7)

Nearly four times as many Americans may die of diabetes as indicated on death certificates, a rate that would bump the disease up from the seventh-leading cause of death to No. 3, according to estimates in a recent study. Researchers and advocates say that more-precise figures are important as they strengthen the argument that more should be done to prevent and treat diabetes, which affects the way sugar is metabolized in the body. (Karidis, 4/7)

The MRI scan had gone smoothly, the huge machine searching for clues to Paul Doherty’s excruciating back pain. But the technician who then moved Doherty onto a gurney in the hallway inadvertently wheeled him back into the MRI room, doing what should never be done: bringing a metal object into a space radiating with magnetic power. (Kowalcyzk, 4/8)

An experimental technique reduces the tics, or involuntary movements and vocal outbursts, associated with severe Tourette's syndrome in young adults, a study published Friday found. The surgical technique, called thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS), sends electrical impulses to a specific area of the brain that reduces the tics, according to the study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery. The finding adds to the growing body of evidence about the safety and effectiveness of deep brain stimulation, which might eventually lead the Food and Drug Administration to approve the treatment for Tourette's syndrome, according to the researchers. (Naqvi, 4/7)

Last fall, the New York-based reproductive endocrinologist John Zhang made headlines when he reported the birth of the world's first "three-parent" baby — a healthy boy carrying the blended DNA of the birth mother, her husband and an unrelated female donor. (Neimark, 4/8)

This week, the federal government reported that nearly half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 59 are infected with genital human papillomavirus — some strains of which can cause deadly cancer. The report, by the National Center for Health Statistics, notes that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. It also said that some high-risk strains infected 25 percent of men and 20 percent of women, and cause about 31,000 cases of cancer each year. (Belluck, 4/7)

At 45, Sharon Thomas collapsed with a massive stroke that left her unable to walk, talk or swallow. Physicians predicted she'd be an invalid for the rest of her life. But today, she's back hefting 30-pound sandbags at work and playing basketball for fun. Thomas is among several dozen people who have responded surprisingly well to a new stroke treatment in a clinical trial at Oregon Health & Science University and about 30 other sites in the United States and Britain. (Terry, 4/6)

Elizabeth Starrels sat in the examining chair of a Washington ear, nose and throat specialist in October 2012, weeping in frustration and pain. For the previous four months, Starrels, then 52, had been battling painful mouth sores that were getting worse. Eating had become a near impossibility, and Starrels, who was largely subsisting on smoothies, had lost 20 pounds. (Boodman, 4/8)

Most potential new drugs fail when they're tested in people. These failures are not only a major disappointment – they sharply drive up the cost of developing new drugs. A major reason for these failures is that most new drugs are first tested out in mice, rats or other animals. Often those animal studies show great promise. But mice aren't simply furry little people, so these studies often lead science astray. (Harris, 4/10)

As Ellen Gutenstein lay in her bed at home, dying from lung cancer that had metastasized in her brain, a heart-wrenching Mother’s Day card arrived from her granddaughter. Neither Ellen’s daughter — nor her husband — felt they could read it to her without breaking down. Fortunately, a volunteer from the local hospice’s doula program was on hand to help the then-77-year-old resident of Ridgewood, N.J., comfortably die at home. She picked up the letter and read it with compassion. (Horovitz, 4/10)

John Moore tried several prescriptions to treat his recurring, excruciating headaches. But each came with its own drawbacks. The side effects of one prescription put him on the verge of tears; another made him feel like he "wanted to shoot myself; another made me want to shoot everybody else," Moore said. When he finally found one with side effects that he could manage, there was another problem — the doctor prescribed nine pills, but he was having about 20 headaches a month. (Fletcher, 4/8)

In 1995, the Food and Drug Administration approved OxyContin for prescription use. Its active ingredient, oxycodone, has been deemed highly addictive since the 1960s. The drug hit the market at a time of increasing recognition by the U.S. medical community that many patients in pain were being inadequately treated. In 1996, the American Pain Society argued for medical providers to view pain as a "fifth vital sign." The organization urged medical providers to routinely assess and respond to pain levels in their patients in the same way they monitored blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature. (Wadhwani and Whiteny, 4/8)

In this once prosperous West Virginia coal town of 1,900 people, residents say it's not just the decades-long demise of mining that hurt the community — it's the scourge of drug use that came with it. Here, almost everyone knows someone who became addicted. And the Appalachian town is fighting back by suing some of the biggest U.S. drug distributors, hoping to make them pay for the damage done by addiction. Lawyers say growing pushback by communities, many in West Virginia, could ultimately rival the scope of litigation against tobacco companies over smoking. (Virtanen, 4/7)

In less than eight hours last June, Yale New Haven’s emergency department treated 12 patients who had overdosed on opioids. Three died; nine were saved.With opioids in wide circulation, Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, chief of emergency medicine at the hospital and chair of emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine, isn’t sure that one-day spike will stand as a record. (Chedekel, 4/9)

A gap in addiction treatment in Southwest Ohio will shrink soon with the opening of expanded services at the Cincinnati Center for Addiction Treatment. The center helps people with substance use disorders of all kinds and includes medication assisted treatment with psycho-social help, which scientists say is the best careavailable  for those with opioid and heroin addiction. (DeMio, 4/7)

The surge in government-funded coverage has come at a time when Ohio and many other states are reeling from an opioid epidemic that has lead to a rash of overdose deaths, largely from heroin and newer synthetics such as fentanyl. The problem has become so pervasive that a public-private partnership in Cuyahoga County has mounted a major public service campaign called "Know the Risks" to warn about the dangers of taking prescription opioids and to detail what is being done to curb their use. (Krouse, 4/7)

Longtime advocates for measures that address an opioid crisis plaguing both the nation and the Show-Me state are cautiously optimistic that they’ll become law this year. A fervent opponent to a prescription drug-monitoring database, Sen. Rob Schaaf announced last week that he would no longer resist a proposal that would establish one in Missouri. Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, has stifled similar bills for the past five years, citing privacy concerns. (Bott and Huguele, 4/10)

Officials in New York arrested 12 people on Friday in what was described as a conspiracy involving three Brooklyn medical clinics that helped flood the streets with prescription painkillers while defrauding Medicare and Medicaid out of millions of dollars. (Rosenberg and Schweber, 4/7)

A New Jersey doctor has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sold prescriptions for highly addictive opioid painkillers to people who had no medical need for them, including one man who died from an overdose. An attorney representing Dr. Byung Kang, of Little Falls, entered the plea during a court hearing Friday. (4/7)

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the California health care billionaire, believes the United States is fighting a flawed war on cancer, “stuck in dogma.” His bracing critique caught the attention of Joe Biden and, more recently, Donald Trump, who met privately with Soon-Shiong twice during the transition, as he reportedly angled for a role in the administration. (Tahir, 4/9)

When Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong invested in the troubled media company Tronc, he was greeted as a white knight. But a lawyer for Tronc is now accusing Soon-Shiong of making an “implicit threat” that he would abandon the company unless Tronc invested in his own medical diagnostics startup, NantHealth. Soon-Shiong helped rescue Tronc from a hostile takeover attempt last May with an investment of more than $70 million. But he first tried to convince the publishing company to invest in the initial public offering of NantHealth, according to a letter from Tronc’s attorneys filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Garde, 4/3)

President Donald Trump’s administration sent more signals last week that it intends to enforce federal laws against marijuana use, yet advocates for legalizing the drug are still trying to sort out exactly where Trump himself stands on the issue. Rep. Steve Cohen suggests they should look to Jared Kushner for clues. “It comes down to WWJD – what would Jared do?” the Memphis Democrat said. (Collins, 4/9)

Proposed licensing fees for medical marijuana businesses in Ohio would generate more than four times the amount regulators say is needed annually to run the program, according to budget estimates released Friday. Ohio officials had said fees were set high in part to help cover costs of the program. (Borchardt, 4/7)

Although the drug remains illegal under federal law, 28 states and the District of Columbia allow the use of medical marijuana in some form. This long record of trial-and-error can guide Florida lawmakers and health officials as they work against a looming July deadline to put this state’s medical marijuana program into place. (Auslen, 4/7)

A crowd of doctors, nurses, and other health care advocates gathered on the steps of the Massachusetts State House on Saturday afternoon to call for a single-payer health care system to improve access to coverage. The Rally to Take Back Health was one of several organized by health care groups as part of the National Day of Action for Improved Medicare for All. (Arnold, 4/8)

Exorbitant drug prices, high deductibles and the need to jump through hoops to get procedures covered. Those were some of the realities of today's health insurance landscape decried Saturday at a sidewalk town hall in downtown Louisville. Dozens of people gathered outside U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's office to show their support for single-payer national health insurance, which is sometimes referred to as "Medicare for all." (Carter, 4/8)

Kansas is taking steps to give parents more control over medical decisions about life-extending care for their disabled or critically ill children with a new law that supporters hope becomes a model for other states. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill Friday that will prevent hospitals and physicians from instituting do-not-resuscitate orders or similar directives for children if one parent objects. The new law takes effect July 1. (Hanna, 4/7)

A bill allowing out-of-state insurance carriers to sell plans in Oklahoma will be heard in committee next week. The House author of Senate Bill 478 said his measure would give Oklahoma residents a chance to buy less expensive health insurance, but opponents have criticized the fact that those policies might not have the coverage mandates consumers need or expect. (Denwalt, 4/9)

A program to rehabilitate victims of sex trafficking may finally receive funding under a proposal added to the Texas House budget late last week. The proposal by state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, would reroute $3 million from the governor’s homeland security budget and direct it to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to help trafficking victims receive “necessary services,” though it does not specify which ones. (Walters, 4/10)

Alarmed by suicide rates persistently among the highest in the nation, Montana lawmakers moved closer Saturday to sending legislation to Gov. Steve Bullock authorizing $1 million to address a crisis that has long vexed public health officials, veterans groups, tribal leaders and other communities across the state. (Calvan, 4/9)

Stewart-Webster Hospital, in Richland, Georgia, is one of about 80 hospitals that have closed across the country since 2010, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When a small community loses its hospital, residents say it loses more than just its health care provider. The community also loses jobs and a sense of security that emergency help is nearby. (Yu, 4/7)

Some optometrists are pushing back against new technology that allows consumers to get prescriptions for contact lenses and glasses with the click of a keyboard and a smartphone. While proponents of these limited online eye exams argue they provide both financial savings and convenience, medical professionals contend patients could be put at risk. Without a full, face-to-face exam from a doctor, they argue potential medical problems could be overlooked. (4/8)

To show why the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter needs a pricey makeover, security counselor Tim Headlee climbed down a flight of stairs in a vacated residential unit one afternoon last week, waved to staff members and guests watching from a nearby glass-enclosed observation office and then disappeared around a corner. “It’s a blind spot,” the hidden Headlee yelled as he stood near the entrance to a two-patient bedroom. It’s also one of the most risky places to be in the state’s largest, prison-like psychiatric institution, which currently treats 369 of Minnesota’s most acutely mentally ill and dangerous patients. (Salisbury, 4/7)

Community leaders took to the Alex Theatre stage on Thursday to sign a pledge proclaiming their commitment to improving Glendale’s collective health. The event was part of the Glendale Healthier Community Coalition’s “We Own the Health of Our Community” initiative and representatives from more than 100 organizations, including local businesses and government agencies, signed the pledge. Signatories included Mayor Paula Devine, Glendale Unified Supt. Winfred Roberson Jr. and Glendale Fire Chief Greg Fish. (Nguyen, 4/7)

Lawyers for Kentucky's governor have halted efforts to shut down the state's last abortion clinic pending the outcome of a lawsuit aimed at preventing the closure. The latest development came as lawyers for Gov. Matt Bevin and the Louisville clinic submitted an agreement to U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers, who had not yet signed it. In it, Bevin's administration agreed to renew the license for EMW Women's Surgical Center until the lawsuit is resolved. (4/7)

About 1,800 current and former Florida prison inmates who were denied medical care for hernias will be entitled to divide $1.7 million in damages from a class-action lawsuit under a conditional settlement agreed to by the Department of Corrections and its former prison health-care provider, Corizon, and filed in federal court in Tallahassee last week. The suit was brought by the Florida Justice Institute and the Coral Gables law firm of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton in September 2015 on behalf of three inmates. (Klas, 4/7)

Authorities say a Maryland doctor has paid $450,000 to the state to resolve allegations that she submitted false billing records to the Medicaid program. Officials say this week’s settlement with Dr. Sabiha Mohiuddin, who owns and operates a primary care practice serving Medicaid patients, stems from a civil complaint filed in the Circuit Court for Frederick County. (4/8)

It’s the much-feared diagnosis no one wants to hear. But under new state and federal guidelines, more patients could be getting easier and earlier diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease, which already affects more than 600,000 Californians. (Buck, 4/8)

Sean Smith and his husband paid more than $20,000 for a fertility procedure when they decided to have a child using a surrogate mother. They did not know at the time that if they were a heterosexual couple, they might have saved that money. Now, Smith and other members of Hawaii’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are lobbying for equal access to the financial help that married heterosexual couples receive under state law. (Bussewitz, 4/9)

Two transgender University of Wisconsin employees sued state entities Friday in federal court over their refusal to pay for their gender transition surgeries. The two employees sued the UW System, the Board of Regents, insurers and others with the assistance of the national and Wisconsin arms of the American Civil Liberties Union. (Marley, 4/7)

The final months of Christen Gordon’s short life highlight the government’s increasing reliance on private companies to perform what has long been considered a societal obligation: caring for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. Across the nation, a multi-billion-dollar industry that runs group homes and other small, community-based facilities has largely supplanted public institutions. (Judd, 4/10)

Dr. Samuel Williams is a young physician looking for a fresh start. He also has an innovative idea for making health care accessible to low-income populations. An Albany resident since 2014, Williams, 36, has established Williams Geriatric Medicine and Medical Services PC to spring to life a primary care setting through which he said he would introduce the “$1 a minute visit” clinic in Albany if his plan is approved by state medical officials. (Parks, 4/8)

As states around the country introduce and pass “Blue Lives Matter” laws, North Carolina has its own version worked into the omnibus “First Responders Act of 2017. ”House Bill 181 deals with a myriad of issues related to first responders, but section seven would classify assault against a police officer, emergency medical technician or firefighter as a “hate crime.” (Knopf, 4/10)

A local environmental advocacy group last week launched a first-of-its kind monitoring project, installing air quality sensors in the densely packed neighborhoods near this city’s port to give the people who live and work there on-the-ground readings of pollutants that can seriously injure their health. (Nguyen, 4/10)

The Times analyzed more than 10,000 pages of police records and combed through hundreds of media reports and court files, and conducted dozens of fresh interviews, to build Florida’s most comprehensive database of police shootings... The Times database accounts for all shootings in Florida in which someone was hit by a bullet, allowing a more comprehensive look at the numbers. It also accounts for demographics and the circumstances leading to the shootings to better understand when and why police use deadly force. (Montgomery and Humburg, 4/7)

During the past few months, leaders of the region's fledgling infant mortality initiative, First Year Cleveland, have been digging through birth, death and medical records to assemble the first local picture of these lost children: who they were, what killed them, and both when and what kind of care their mothers received. Their preliminary findings suggest that the group, formed 15 months ago and just now settling on a mission statement, faces a long, tough road if it expects to significantly reduce infant deaths in the area. (Zeltner, 4/9)

A jury awarded $8.5 million to a Seattle couple after the man underwent a surgery at Virginia Mason Medical Center and developed complications that led to months of reconstructing his penis.The couple said they had insisted that a specific doctor handle a portion of the procedure, but they learned later that a less-experienced doctor did so. (Young and Baker, 4/7)

Do certain people want more medical care than others do? And, does that matter? To consider this idea, start by answering the following question: Which of the paragraphs below describes you best? (Laura Scherer and Brian Zikmund-Fisher, 4/9)

While acknowledging these important exceptions, my concern is that the accepted indications for this shiny new medicine will eventually creep, as so many do, into a wider range of situations that could be more effectively, and economically, addressed through lifestyle changes. To illustrate the point, I used the $14,000 annual cost of the new cholesterol medicine as the basis to construct an alternative shopping list: one related to evidence-based healthy food and lifestyle choices. (Stephen Devries, 4/9)

In the coming months, many primary care physicians may find themselves in similar roles, as they are called upon to help their patients navigate issues of access, care and insurance as the debate over healthcare reform continues to simmer. For millions of people such decisions may become a life or death matter. (Walter George, 4/9)

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)

Understanding how America’s opioid addiction problem turned into an epidemic requires connecting a lot of dots between addicts and their corporate suppliers. Some of those dots lead to the doorstep of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in Hazelwood. (4/10)

A confluence of events has occurred in the United States that could help to save the lives of many patients as well as the lives and careers of many physicians. The solution is to apply the use of micropractices to address the current opioid addiction crisis. A micropractice is a small medical practice that is run efficiently to keep overhead low and put the patient first. The patient is given more time and attention than is traditionally given in a big box, assembly line clinic. ... The size of the patient panel is kept small so that each patient has access to the doctor and is treated like a human being, not a number. ... Micropractices also happen to be ideal settings for patients who need treatment for opioid dependence and addiction. (Mark Leeds, 4/9)

Here’s a sad fact about the United States, the country with the highest per-capita spending on health care in the world: Wealthy people are significantly healthier than poor people. That gap exists in part because the rich can afford better health care than the poor. But there’s much more to it than that. As leaders in medical education, health care delivery, and social equity in medicine, we were deeply distressed by the fortunately derailed Republican health care proposal that would have left 14 million currently insured Americans without health coverage by next year. Five million of those individuals would have lost coverage through Medicaid. (Michael Westerhaus, Amy Finnegan, Jennifer Goldsmith, Evan Lyon, Casey Fox and Michelle Morse, 4/7)

If abortion becomes illegal nationwide – if a conservative majority on the Supreme Court determines that a zygote has Fourteenth Amendment rights or the “heartbeat bill” now before Congress barring abortion after about six weeks becomes law – what will doctors do when women ask for help? (Molly Selvin, 4/7)

Last month, I traveled to Washington, D.C., along with other women from around the country, to tell our stories to members of Congress.  The stories were so diverse, but all had the same theme. Without Planned Parenthood, my life would be so different, or, in my case, over. (Christy Miceli, 4/7)

The Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress are pushing to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds to pay for contraception, and cervical and breast cancer screenings. Funding for the federal Title X program, which provides infrastructure support to a network of nearly 4,000 clinics across the country, could also be in jeopardy. Five years ago, we learned in Texas what can happen when efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are carried out: The network of health care providers falls apart, and women lose access to essential preventive services. (Joseph E. Potter and Kari White, 4/8)

Last week in Gaborone, Botswana, Laura and I sat in a small room in Tlokweng Main Clinic, a facility that recently started screening and treating women for cervical cancer. Seated with us was Leithailwe Wale, a 40-year-old woman who was diagnosed with the disease. Thanks to early detection and access to treatment, she told us, today she is alive, healthy and able to raise her son. (Former President George W. Bush, 4/7)

In the last 10 years, remarkable advances have been made in how we fight cancer, work that was made possible by our nation’s support of biomedical research, largely through the National Institutes of Health. One of the most powerful new tools in our arsenal is cancer immunotherapy, which reawakens the body’s own immune system. Immunotherapy drugs have produced stunning results for many people suffering from advanced cancer. ... Federal funding for biomedical research has generally been declining. The budget for the NIH has eroded by nearly 20 percent since 2003. (Ronald DePinho, 4/7)

Newly released federal budget proposals would cut $1.2 billion from this year’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget and almost $6 billion from next year’s NIH budget. If approved, these cuts will not only make it harder to find new cures and provide better patient care, it will make it tougher to create new jobs. For research centers like the University of Virginia School of Medicine, NIH funding is crucial to supporting medical research that provides the scientific understanding needed to develop new and better treatments for patients. (David S. Wilkes, 4/8)

The animal research industry has a history of silence that we are beginning to understand must be broken. The public doesn’t have the information needed to understand what happens in our facilities. They’ve been inundated by propaganda that, at best, misrepresents us and at worst, spreads hate and fear. The public is almost exclusively exposed to this nearly always false, fantastical, fanatical misleading information. This isn’t fair to the public, to those of us who work in this industry, or to our animals. (Meagan Shetler, 4/7)