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President Trump’s secretary of health and human services, Tom Price, took office on Friday with a promise to fix what he called a “broken health care system” that was “harming Americans and their families.” Mr. Price was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence just hours after the Senate, by a party-line vote of 52 to 47, confirmed his nomination in the early hours of Friday morning. (Pear and Rappeport, 2/10)

As head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Price has the authority to rewrite rules implementing the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He could move quickly to rework the regulations while waiting for Republicans in Congress to keep their pledge to scrap the law entirely. (Cornwell, 2/13)

Tom Price’s swearing-in as secretary of health and human services Friday means he is now in position to dismantle key parts of the Affordable Care Act, even if repeal efforts in Congress bog down. But it isn’t clear Dr. Price will quickly gut parts of the law. Instead, the Trump administration is expected to issue a proposed rule soon to appease insurers and help stabilize the individual insurance market for 2018, giving Republicans breathing room to continue working on their overhaul plans. (Armour and Hackman, 2/10)

The new secretary offered no remarks following his swearing-in hours later by Vice President Pence. But the biggest challenge he faces — one on which progress in Congress seems uncertain for now, despite GOP lawmakers’ pledges for immediate action — was the first subject Pence mentioned in his introduction. “President Trump has made it the top priority of this new Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with health-care reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government,” Pence said. (Goldstein and Sullivan, 2/10)

Newly confirmed HHS Secretary Tom Price likely will spend his first few days focusing on efforts to stabilize the individual health insurance market as Republicans work to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Following the pattern of strictly party-line votes on two previous nominees—Attorney General-designate Sen. Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos for education secretary—the former congressman from Georgia was approved on a 52-47 vote. (Meyer and Dickson, 2/11)

Liberal women's health organizations are worried about the confirmation of Tom Price to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), citing his past statements and positions on abortion, birth control and ObamaCare. “A vote for Tom Price is a vote against affordable birth control, access to reproductive health care, and a vote against Planned Parenthood," said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. (Hellmann, 2/10)

[Dr. Muhammad] Tauseef was born and raised in Pakistan. After going to medical school there, he applied to come to the U.S. to train as a pediatrician. It's a path thousands of foreign-born medical students follow every year — a path that's been around for more than half a century. And, like most foreign-born physicians, Tauseef came on a J1 visa. That meant after training he had two options: return to Pakistan or work for three years in an area the U.S. government has identified as having a provider shortage. (Silverman, 2/11)

A Houston surgeon has canceled a trip to Iran to perform lifesaving surgeries because of uncertainty over the future of President Donald Trump’s refugee and immigration travel ban. Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz is an Iranian-born professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He specializes in fetal surgery, and he has already had devastating video chats with two sets of parents who expected him to operate on their unborn children. (2/10)

It was only in October that his colleagues would learn what had happened: [Dr. Ahmadreza] Djalali had been imprisoned in Tehran, accused of espionage. Now, after being held for nearly 11 months, Djalali could be sentenced to death over the next few days — in part because he refused to sign a confession saying that he was a spy for a “hostile government,” according to an Amnesty International report.His friends in the disaster medicine and human rights communities are urgently organizing a campaign to free Djalali, hoping that publicity will pressure Iran to change course. They have started a petition, which currently has over 200,000 signatures. (Boodman, 2/10)

After denouncing the Affordable Care Act as an abomination for seven years, Republicans in Congress, working with the Trump administration, are urgently seeking ways to shore up health insurance marketplaces created by the law. While President Trump said as a candidate that “Obamacare is certain to collapse of its own weight,” Republicans fear such an outcome because, now that the fate of the health law is in their hands, they could be blamed by consumers and Democrats. (Pear, 2/10)

The Affordable Care Act’s tax on high-cost employer health plans faced sharp opposition from employers and unions. Now, Republicans are drawing equal fire for ACA replacement proposals that those groups say would have some of the same effects. The ACA’s so-called Cadillac tax is levied on the value of employer health plans above a certain threshold, in part to discourage what backers argue are overly generous plans and high usage of costly care. It is one of the few aspects of the law that Congress has tweaked, delaying its impact until 2020. (Wilde Mathews, 2/13)

Republicans love cutting taxes, especially if they were authored by a president named Barack Obama. But as they push their wobbly effort to erase his health care overhaul, they're divided over whether to repeal the levies the law imposed to finance its expanded coverage for millions of Americans. (2/13)

A look at the $1.1 trillion in taxes over 10 years imposed by former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The revenue helped pay for the law's expansion of coverage to millions of Americans. The revenue estimates are by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation. They could differ significantly from whatever Republicans propose in their effort to erase the law and replace it. (2/13)

Republicans in deep-red congressional districts spent the week navigating massive crowds and hostile questions at their town hall meetings — an early indication of how progressive opposition movements are mobilizing against the agenda of the GOP and President Trump. Angry constituents swarmed events held by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Diane Black (Tenn.), Justin Amash (Mich.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.). They filled the rooms that had been reserved for them; in Utah and Tennessee, scores of activists were locked out. Voters pressed members of Congress on their plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, on the still-controversial confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and even on a low-profile vote to disband an election commission created after 2000. (Snell, Schwartzman, Friess and Weigel, 2/10)

These days, Deborah Johnson is on edge. She says she's worried she won't qualify for Social Security disability benefits, anxious about her middle son's recovery from a car accident last year, and feeling the pervasive effects of her complex post-traumatic stress disorder that dates back to an abusive childhood. But by her mid-morning coffee on a recent Thursday, Johnson was feeling pretty good. Her phone call to Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander's district office had gone through."I usually get a voicemail, but I talked to a staffer," Johnson, 39, told CNN at her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. "And I said I wanted a call back and he wouldn't take my number and I said, 'You're going to take my number. I'm one of his constituents.'" Her urgent message: Repealing Obamacare would devastate her family. (Lee, 2/13)

Pro-Obamacare protests in Clermont County went viral Friday, as a woman attempted to interrupt a speech by U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup and dozens of other protesters gathered outside. Wenstrup, R-Columbia Tusculum, spoke Friday at the Clermont Chamber of Commerce luncheon, filling in for Sen. Rob Portman, a Terrace Park Republican. (Thompson, 2/11)

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Saturday called for nationwide rallies in support of ObamaCare, calling GOP efforts to repeal and replace the healthcare legislation “chaos.” “We are encouraging Democratic senators to lead rallies in their states. This is not a Democratic issue, a Republican issue or an Independent issue,” the senators said in a letter. (Shelbourne, 2/11)

Once its patients were insured by the Affordable Care Act, the community health center in Whitesburg, Ky. opened on the weekends in 2014 and added optometrists and a dental clinic in 2015. Van Breeding, the primary care doctor in charge of the clinic, says if his patients lose coverage in any ACA replacement, he’ll have to close on weekends and get rid of the newer services. Patients like Lee Sexton, an 88-year-old banjo player with black lung disease, will have to head to the far more expensive emergency room if they need care on the weekends. (O'Donnell, 2/12)

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare,” on “day one” of his presidency. As president, he signed last month an executive order affirming his intention... A news release about the ad campaign stated 709,000 Arizonans would lose health coverage if the ACA is repealed. To back up that figure, it cites a report from the left-leaning Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on social and economic policy research. (Jarvis, 2/10)

The Affordable Care Act created new health coverage opportunities more than half a million Native Americans and Alaska Natives — and jobs have followed on its coattails.In Montana, this is playing out at the Blackfeet Community Hospital. It’s the only hospital on the Blackfeet reservation, and has been mostly funded — and chronically underfunded — by the Indian Health Service, which has been in charge of Native American health care since its founding in the 1950s. But now, many Native Americans have been able to afford health insurance on the Obamacare exchange, and last year, Montana expanded Medicaid. Now, about one in seven reservation residents gets Medicaid. (Whitney, 2/13)

Under Republican-led plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, hundreds of thousands of self-employed people in California are at risk of losing their ability to buy affordable insurance. Some business owners welcome the rollback of the law, but the smallest of California businesses — entrepreneurs and contract workers who buy insurance on their own through Covered California — have the most to lose under a repeal.That worries small business advocates who favor the Affordable Care Act. They say putting health care coverage out of reach of the self-employed could threaten Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit and burden people who create jobs and take on financial risk. (Bartolone, 2/13)

Anti-abortion activists emboldened by the new administration of President Donald Trump staged rallies around the country Saturday calling for the federal government to cut off payments to Planned Parenthood, but in some cities counter-protests dwarfed the demonstrations. Thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters, many wearing the pointy-eared pink hats popularized by last month's women's marches, turned out for a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, separated by barricades from an anti-abortion crowd of a couple hundred people. In Detroit, about 300 people turned up outside a Planned Parenthood office, most of them supporting the organization. In St. Louis, thousands marched, many carrying pink signs that read, "I stand with Planned Parenthood." (2/11)

Anti-abortion groups called for demonstrations at more than 200 Planned Parenthood locations throughout the United States on Saturday to urge Congress and President Trump to strip the women’s health provider of federal funding. Supporters of Planned Parenthood in turn organized 150 counterdemonstrations outside politicians’ offices and government buildings. (2/11)

A rally in Glendale on Sunday morning calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood drew counterprotesters in support of the organization as well as shut down the clinic for the day. Messages and drawings in chalk were scattered across the sidewalk where hundreds of activists on both sides of the divisive issue stood outside in a light rain near 57th Drive and Eugie Avenue as they took their stances in a peaceful faceoff. (Jeong, 2/12)

With a new grandchild in her family, Becky Sanfelippo said Saturday that she decided to join her first public protest, holding a "Moms for Life" sign and standing with around 70 people gathered outside the Planned Parenthood health center on S. 108th St... The rally was led by Pro-Life Wisconsin and was among more than 200 demonstrations at Planned Parenthood locations across the country. Emboldened by the election of President Donald Trump, who vowed during his campaign to take away federal funding for Planned Parenthood, activists are trying to prod Congress to make good on the promise. (Glauber, 2/11)

As part of a thunderous response to anti-abortion groups targeting Planned Parenthood locations nationwide, thousands of abortion rights demonstrators lined The Alameda on Saturday, rallying in support of the nonprofit that provides abortions and other medical services to women throughout the United States. Wearing many shades of pink and holding posters that read “Stand with Planned Parenthood” and “Keep your religion off my body,” the crowd of about 4,000 people focused on the decades-long debate over whether women should be allowed to decide whether to terminate their pregnancies. (Sanchez, 2/11)

[Damien] Cox is among those voicing support for the nonprofit reproductive health organization at what could be a critical moment in its history. President Trump and his administration have threatened to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, because the services provided by the clinics include abortions. On Saturday, the debate will crest with nationwide rallies — including at clinics in San Francisco, Redwood City and Napa — calling for the “defunding” of Planned Parenthood. (Ravani, 2/10)

Around the country, thousands of anti-abortion advocates protested at Planned Parenthood facilities, calling for an end to abortion and any government funding for the non-profit. Locally, there were protests in Tampa, Sarasota and St. Petersburg.  Porter, who's in her fifties, said she had three abortions in her twenties. At least one was performed at Planned Parenthood, she said. (Walters, 2/13)

Anti-abortion rights protesters gathered outside Planned Parenthood clinics across the country Saturday, in a series of rallies calling on politicians to end federal funding for the century-old organization. The activists planned to picket outside roughly 200 Planned Parenthood clinics — but at many of those locations, counterprotesters were there to meet them. The group #ProtestPP, which organized the rallies, says demonstrations have been planned in at least 45 states, according to ABC News. (Dwyer, 2/11)

Republicans for years have attempted to strip all federal funds from Planned Parenthood, and the time has come when it might actually happen. The women’s health organization would lose millions of dollars annually in Medicaid reimbursements and family planning grants if Republican plans succeed. The defunding is embedded in a legislative package that also would repeal large portions of the health care law and is set for fast-track consideration by Congress. With President Donald Trump in the White House and ready to sign, it’s likely the bill could become law. (Shutt, 2/13)

There’s a new honesty these days about drug abuse. In obituaries, media interviews, and letters to lawmakers, families that have lost loved ones to overdoses are naming the drugs that killed them. As more and more people emerge from the shadows to put a face on the nation’s opioid epidemic, however, faces of color are notably absent. In part that reflects the makeup of the epidemic itself: While deaths among white Americans have soared, those among blacks and Latinos have stayed relatively steady. (Samuel, 2/13)

Chad Diaz began using heroin when he was 12. Now 36 and newly covered by Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, he is on Suboxone, a substitute opioid that eases withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and he is slowly pulling himself together. “This is the best my life has gone in many, many years,” Mr. Diaz, a big man wearing camouflage, said as he sat in a community health center here. If Congress and President Trump succeed in dismantling the Affordable Care Act, he will have no insurance to pay for his medication or counseling, and he fears he will slide back to heroin. (Seelye and Goodnough, 2/10)

Frank Guinta, a former New Hampshire lawmaker who helped create an opioid crisis task force in Congress, has discussed serving as President Donald Trump’s “drug czar” with Trump’s team, according to several individuals familiar with the discussions. Since the election, Guinta has spoken with top Trump aides about serving as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy — a position colloquially known as the nation’s “drug czar”—  multiple individuals, speaking on condition of anonymity, told STAT this week. (Scott, 2/10)

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has staked his final year as governor on tackling the state’s addiction crisis, but efforts under way in the state show how difficult that task is. Citing long waiting lists at many treatment centers, Mr. Christie wants to increase the availability of both inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. The governor has urged the state legislature to pass laws limiting the quantity of opioids doctors can prescribe and mandating insurance coverage for addiction treatment. (King, 2/11)

As the opioid epidemic escalated three years ago into a statewide public health emergency, Taunton boldly came forward and confronted the problem in a public way. A key moment came in February 2014, when Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey and the White House drug czar held a press conference about the crisis at a city fire station. As if to underscore the situation’s urgency, firefighters were dispatched to a reported overdose during the session. Despite the city’s direct approach, the number of people killed every year by opioids has grown over the past three years. (Crimaldi, 2/10)

Teaching students of all ages social and emotional learning is a crucial step toward combating Ohio's drug addiction crisis, Attorney General Mike DeWine suggests. The Ohio Joint Study Committee on Drug Use Prevention Education issued 15 recommendations Friday for schools across the state. These include requiring schools to report how they are teaching students to resist drug abuse. (Tenbarge, 2/10)

It's tough to be a teenager. Hormones kick in, peer pressures escalate and academic expectations loom large. Kids become more aware of their environment in the teen years — down the block and online. The whole mix of changes can increase stress, anxiety and the risk of depression among all teens, research has long shown. But a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics suggests many more teenage girls in the U.S. may be experiencing major depressive episodes at this age than boys. (Neighmond, 2/13)

Tom Bocci’s encounter with a bacterium he had never heard of began in April, when his doctor suggested a test for prostate cancer. Because the results appeared slightly abnormal, Mr. Bocci underwent a biopsy, taking antibiotics beforehand as a standard precaution against infection. There was no problem with his prostate, it turned out. But a few days later, Mr. Bocci developed severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting. He grew dehydrated. Five days afterward, in a hospital emergency room, doctors diagnosed a Clostridium difficile infection. (Span, 2/10)

It’s been a perplexing puzzle in the flu vaccine world — what’s going on with FluMist? The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said last June that the live-attenuated vaccine, made by MedImmune (a division of AstraZeneca) should not be used this flu season because some US studies from three recent years suggested it offered poor or no protection in children aged 2 to 17. (Branswell, 2/13)

Jernica Quiñones, a mother of five, was the first parent in New Jersey to get her free baby box — a portable, low-tech bassinet made of laminated cardboard. But first, she had to take an online course about safe sleeping practices, which experts say can sharply reduce the chances of sudden infant death syndrome. “Basically, you want to have the baby on the mattress, and that’s it,” she said after watching a 20-minute series of videos. (Foderao, 2/12)

Although art therapy is offered by a number of established medical centers, many Americans don’t know much about it. Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy where mental health professionals use art materials to help patients explore feelings that may not be easy to express in words. Almost overnight, the field has attracted new attention because of a connection with the Trump administration. On Inauguration Day, Karen Pence, the second lady, announced on the newly revamped White House website that she wants to shine a “spotlight on the mental health profession of art therapy.” (Saint Louis, 2/10)

Most people prefer not to think about death, much less plan for it. In a tech-crazed world, where time is commonly measured in 140 characters and 6-second sound bites, life would appear to be dissected into so many bite-sized morsels that discussion of death doesn’t even seem to fit into the equation. “Everybody has a fear of death, no matter what culture, religion or country they come from,” said Kelvin Chin, author of “Overcoming the Fear of Death” and founder of the Overcoming the Fear of Death Foundation and the non-profit turningwithin.org. “Fear is simply an emotion caused by the anticipation of unhappiness.” (Horovitz, 2/13)

Individual insurance plans account for only about 8 percent of the market in Colorado. But Anthem, and to a lesser extent Cigna, are also players in the employer-sponsored insurance world — which is 50 percent of the state’s insurance market. In 2014, Anthem — listed under its previous name, Wellpoint — was the largest insurer in the state’s small group market and the second-largest in the large group market, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group that is not affiliated with the insurer and health care provider Kaiser Permanente. (Ingold, 2/11)

New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster said it marks a big victory for consumers, since his office, along with the AGs from 10 other states and the District of Columbia, brought the civil lawsuit, aimed at torpedoing the merger. "The court's decision is a tremendous win for consumers, employers, health-care providers, and other health insurers who compete in this state," Foster said in a statement. "New Hampshire already has too few competitors in the health insurance market. Anthem and Cigna directly compete in important segments of the New Hampshire market, offering different approaches for fostering improved health care at lower costs." (Landrigan, 2/11)

Joe Kiani likes to point out that the most worn spot on most medical monitoring devices is the mute button. ... His tech fix — if widely implemented — could bring order to the cacophony of beeps, buzzes, and blaring alarms that can so overwhelm nurses and doctors that they push “mute” and miss true emergencies. It could make it easier for staff to monitor patients with complex needs. And it could flag, in advance, potentially fatal errors like incorrect dosing and drug allergies. (McFarling, 2/13)

Trinity Health system executives take home heftier paychecks when they keep patients healthy and out of the hospital. The annual incentive pay for each executive, including the 93-hospital system's CEO, is docked if Trinity's total patient population doesn't show reduced rates of obesity, smoking, readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions. Hitting financial targets, on the other hand, receives little weight in the incentive plan. Trinity's strategy is a sharp departure from the status quo of CEO pay packages where financial incentives have long dominated. But it is a surefire way to focus top leaders' attention on the health system's mission to deliver better outcomes and lower costs to patients in the 22 states where it operates. (Livingston, 2/11)

Fast-growing Chinese eye hospital chain Aier Eye Hospital plans to enter the U.S. market this year, with headquarters in Nashville and a long-term goal to open eye clinics across the country. Leading eye surgeon Dr. Ming Wang of Wang Vision Institute has been tapped as CEO of Aier-USA. The company established a holding company in the U.S., with a starting fund of $50 million. Wang’s association with Aier dates back 15 years, when the company was a small private eye hospital trying to gain a foothold in China’s health care market, where the vast majority of hospitals are controlled by the government. (Alfs, 2/10)

Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals have joined together to create a new Northern Ohio Trauma System (NOTS), which will provide coordinated trauma care to patients throughout Cuyahoga County and the seven-county Northeast Ohio region. As part of this enhanced trauma network, University Hospitals is adding its trauma expertise to NOTS. The NOTS network was originally formed in 2010 between MetroHealth and Cleveland Clinic, and NOTS assisted the City of Cleveland public safety forces to get the right patient to the right place at the right time for their care. (MacFarland, 2/10)

In the speech and language impairment world, Livox falls under the umbrella of augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC. The systems help people with disabilities and impaired communication express themselves despite conditions such as autism, stroke, cerebral palsy or even cancer. The devices can be sophisticated and expensive, such as the one Stephen Hawking uses. Or they can be much simpler apps with images, which produce sentences and phrases when pressed by the user. Livox is more user-friendly and easier to customize than other apps available on the market, according to families and speech therapists who use it. (Miller, 2/13)

Legislation needed to renew a fee on Georgia hospitals to help close a more than $900 million gap in Medicaid funding is on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk. The state House on Friday voted 152-14 to give final approval to Senate Bill 70, which authorizes the Department of Community Health board to levy the fee for another three years. The board is expected to do so quickly if Deal signs the bill into law, as expected. (Gould Sheinin, 2/10)

More parents in New Jersey are choosing religious exemptions for child vaccinations, resulting in a steady increase in unvaccinated schoolchildren. The number of state religious exemptions among children in primary school more than doubled within a six-year period. (Leonard, 2/12)

A House committee is taking up an unusual resolution that would invalidate a local law in the nation’s capital. The House Oversight Committee will vote Monday on whether to send a resolution to the House floor blocking the District of Columbia’s “Death with Dignity” law. Oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, has vowed to stop the law, calling it “misguided” and immoral. (2/13)

The state legislature decided in 1988 that somebody who donated blood while knowingly HIV-positive could be punished with up to six years in prison. Ten years later, it became a felony to have unprotected sex with the intent of transmitting HIV to a partner. Now, in 2017, a group of Democratic state lawmakers say times have changed — not that those behaviors shouldn’t be illegal, but that HIV/AIDS shouldn’t be singled out. Under California’s newly introduced Senate Bill 239, intentionally transmitting any infectious or communicable disease, including HIV, would be a misdemeanor, not a felony. (Facher, 2/13)

A group of individuals with disabilities, many in wheelchairs, testified at a state Senate hearing last week that Minnesota needs urgent measures to expand the supply of workers who care for tens of thousands of vulnerable adults and children in their homes. The state-funded personal care assistance program, they argue, has not kept pace with burgeoning demand and a more competitive labor market, thrusting many people with complex health needs into life-or-death situations. (Serres, 2/11)

A Kansas House committee overseeing budgets for social services offered appreciation to programs serving the elderly and people with disabilities or mental illnesses. Legislators may not be able to offer much more than that. Rep. Barbara Ballard, ranking minority member on the House Social Services Budget Committee, suggested members approve $250,000 to fund services for seniors, such as bathing and assistance with housework. The funds wouldn’t begin to make up for $2.1 million in cuts to Senior Care Act services last year, she said, but would help Area Agencies on Aging chip away at their waiting lists. (Wingerter, 2/10)

For some, it’s the scent of tequila or the sound of an iPhone ringing. Hearts race, breathing sharpens, palms sweat and suddenly, they’re back at the scene of the most traumatic event most are lucky enough never to have to see. Some Pulse nightclub terror attack first responders say post-traumatic stress disorder triggers can show up in everyday settings, but the University of Central Florida’s Dr. Deborah Beidel says they don’t have to stop sufferers from living their lives. (Doornbos, 2/10)

Crawford was seeing a counselor, but it wasn't helping. Then her husband told her about the Stress, Trauma and Resilience program, or STAR, at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, where Crawford learned ways to cope with her anxiety so she could function again. "It absolutely changed my life," said Crawford, now 30.The program, started eight years ago, offers psychological treatment to people affected by crime and other traumas. It's on the verge of expanding with an $839,335 grant from the Ohio attorney general's office that will more than quadruple the budget. (Viviano, 2/12)

Sweeping changes proposed to Iowa’s collective bargaining laws would block most public-sector unions from negotiating over health insurance, though they stop short of instituting a mandatory statewide health insurance system Gov. Terry Branstad has floated. Republican leaders say they considered including such a plan in the legislation, but felt it could be too restrictive. Instead, the bill leaves open the possibility for a voluntary statewide health insurance program that employers could opt into. (Pfannenstiel, 2/10)

California’s biggest health insurers reported inaccurate information to the state on which doctors are in their networks, offering conflicting lists that differed by several thousand physicians, according to a new state report. Shelley Rouillard, director of the California Department of Managed Health Care, said 36 of 40 health insurers she reviewed — including industry giants like Aetna and UnitedHealthcare — could face fines for failing to submit accurate data or comply with state rules. (Terhune, 2/10)

Juan [Horta] was diagnosed with xanthoastrocytoma, an uncommon and aggressive brain tumor. Stage three. A surgeon at University Hospitals removed the tumor, and Juan was sent to a nursing home to recover. Caesar, and his mother, Maria Guillen, visited daily. They noticed what Caesar called "a ball" on the back of Juan's neck, and it was getting bigger by the day. On the fifth day, Juan was unresponsive. The "ball" was filled with cerebrospinal fluid, and Juan needed another surgery to insert a shunt... As an undocumented immigrant, he is not qualified for public benefits, including Medicaid. Government programs require proof of legal immigration. Once that proof is supplied, it is still five years before immigrants can apply for assistance. (Ischay, 2/11)

A bill requiring autism awareness training for law enforcement officers is starting to move in both chambers of the Florida Legislature. It comes after a high profile incident that occurred in South Florida last year involving a black man, an autistic man, and law enforcement. (Cordner, 2/12)

Texas Tribune reporters talked to three convicted traffickers to try to understand the power they wield over victims and the attraction of what they call "the lifestyle." They explained how vulnerable kids end up in the sex trade and how the business works. The interviews also revealed a common thread between pimps and their victims: the poverty and violence in their backgrounds. (Walters, Satija and Smith, 2/13)

The two New Haven state representatives offered those takes Wednesday after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed proposed a $40.6 billion two-year budget that included raising the taxes on a pack of cigarettes by 45 cents, to bring the total cost to $4.35... The problem, argued Rep. Porter, whose district includes New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood, is that it can also end up punishing poor people for their patterns of addiction without offering alternative treatment programs or therapies, like smoking cessation counseling. Lower-income people smoke at disproportionately higher rates. (Gellman, 2/13)

Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have one thing in common: After years of trashing Obamacare, they don’t have a clue how to craft anything better. So the president is now saying that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act — which he promised to do instantly when he took office — may not happen until next year. Why? Because it’s next to impossible to devise a system based on private insurers that is cheaper, covers as many Americans and provides better medical outcomes than the ACA. (2/10)

The GOP strategy on quickly repealing the Affordable Care Act and enacting tax reform that seemed to be so creative and smart when it was first revealed right after the election may soon become the prime source of legislative hell for House and Senate Republicans. Knowing that a Senate filibuster was virtually certain on ACA repeal and highly probable on tax reform, the GOP plan was to use the reconciliation process -- which prevents filibusters -- to pass them both. (Stan Collender, 2/12)

The Post reports on the confirmation of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. ... This is the sole development to date on the Obamacare front that could be characterized as a win for Republicans, who promised voters they’d repeal every word of the Affordable Care Act — and replace with a system that offers lower costs, more flexibility, better care and repeal of ACA-related taxes. So far, the effort has been semi-disastrous, raising questions about whether Republicans can manage to devise and agree upon a replacement that will attract the eight Democratic senators needed for cloture. Republicans would be well-advised to abide by a number of simple rules. (Jennifer Rubin, 2/10)

M.J. Lee of CNN has flagged a great moment at a town hall meeting with GOP Rep. Diane Black that has gone viral because it shows a constituent making an impassioned case for, of all things, the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. As some immediately pointed out, Democrats could learn from this kind of messaging. But the moment is notable for another reason, too: The answer offered by Rep. Black shows how much the debate over the health care law has shifted, in favor of the health law. (Greg Sargent, 2/10)

Medicaid is a highly complex program that provides vital care for a broad array of individuals. There are no easy solutions when it comes to reducing its costs. Changing Medicaid, just like reforming health care, is at best an incremental process, particularly when one considers the new populations now covered by the program as a result of the ACA, such as families in which an adult is employed but in a lower-income job. It has often been said that there are two ways to lower Medicaid costs: reduce eligibility to the program or cut the services provided. Neither are attractive options. Turning the program into block grants firmly delegates decisions on that dilemma to the states. (Gerard Vitti, 2/10)

Moda Health, a small Oregon health insurer, just won a $214-million judgment against the federal government. Normally that wouldn’t be worth reporting, except that in awarding Moda the money, the federal judge in the case dismantled the most cynical attack on the Affordable Care Act that Congressional Republicans had devised.The issue was the ACA’s risk corridor program, which was devised to shelter insurers from unexpected losses in covering ACA customers from 2014 through 2016. To encourage insurers to enter an entirely novel market, the program aimed to balance risks by taking profits from insurers that turned out to be unexpectedly profitable and use the funds to cushion others’ losses. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/10)

The debate about what to do with the Affordable Care Act feels overwhelming to a lot of people. Repeal. Don’t repeal. Replace. With what? What does all this uncertainty mean to us in Florida? As healthcare professionals at Florida’s largest public hospital — Jackson Health System — I and many of my colleagues are frankly terrified by the possibilities. (Martha Baker, 2/10)

In a Jan. 6 letter to Republican representatives in Congress, Gov. Matt Bevin asked them to throw out the Affordable Care Act, saying regulation of health insurance should be given back to individual states. Bevin is advocating sending us back to the time when individuals with chronic medical conditions and disabilities had to beg legislators to get even minimal coverage for their conditions, when insurance-industry lobbyists decided what they could tolerate and then strongly encouraged legislators as to how to vote. (Wendy Wheeler-Mullins, 2/10)

At a recent meeting with pharmaceutical-industry bigwigs, President Trump declared that “we’re going to be cutting regulations at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.” He also said that “we’re going to have tremendous protection for the people." It’s hard to see how he can do both. (David Lazarus, 2/10)

If someone has a mental illness severe enough that he cannot work or manage his own money, should he be allowed to own a gun? In the waning weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama answered that question. Motivated by Adam Lanza's bloody rampage at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six educators in 2012, Obama imposed a rule that barred gun ownership for people who qualify for Social Security disability insurance because their mental illness keeps them from working, and who cannot manage their benefits. That pool is small — just 75,000 Americans. (2/10)

The Trump administration has thrown its weight behind giving patients the “right-to-try” experimental drugs outside clinical trials. While such laws purport to offer hope for the dying, they will actually slow medical progress. (Merrill Goozner, 2/11)

Not only did federal officials determine last month that KanCare was “substantively out of compliance with federal statutes and regulations,” they determined the previous month that services for people with disabilities were also out of compliance. Yet state lawmakers had to learn about both decisions by reading about them in the newspaper. (2/12)

Gov. Terry Branstad said in 2012 he would begin voluntarily paying 20 percent of his state-funded health insurance premiums. He encouraged other state workers, including lawmakers, to follow suit. The next year, the governor said some legislators, who had previously enjoyed premium-free health insurance, had started contributing 20 percent. But not a single lawmaker is paying that share, according to December 2016 data obtained by The Des Moines Register. And it appears they are violating state law. (2/11)

Ohio lawmakers are asking good questions about the money that Gov. John Kasich's proposed budget would devote to the state's opioid epidemic and the collateral damage from it. Last week, Republican and Democrat legislators said they are concerned that the budget does not do enough. The concern is warranted. Ohio leads the nation in drug-overdose deaths, with 3,050 recorded in 2015, the most recent year with complete statistics. (2/13)

Psychedelics, the fabled enlightenment drugs of the ’60s, are making a comeback — this time as medical treatment. A recent study claimed that psilocybin, a mushroom-derived hallucinogenic, relieves anxiety and depression in people with life-threatening cancer. Anecdotal reports have said similar things about so-called microdoses of LSD. ... I fear that in our desire to combat suffering, we will ignore the potential risks of these drugs, or be seduced by preliminary research that seems promising. (Richard A. Friedman, 2/13)

You might think that once drugs, devices and medical procedures are shown to be effective, they quickly become available. You might also think that those shown not to work as well as alternatives are immediately discarded. Reasonable assumptions both, but you’d be wrong. (Austin Frakt and Jonathan Skinner, 2/13)