�鶹Ů��

If the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits in most of the country, governors firmly expect the next move is Washington’s. The governors, in town for the National Governors Association winter meeting, say the issue is a top focus at their conference and will be high on the list of topics when they meet Monday with President Barack Obama. (Radnofsky and Hook, 2/22)

The Supreme Court this June could cut off millions of Americans from affordable Obamacare coverage. The response from the nation’s governors gathering in Washington this week was an assortment of shrugs. POLITICO interviewed more than a dozen governors, from both parties, this weekend at the National Governors Association winter meeting. Most said they’re in a wait-and-see zone. (Cheney, Wheaton and Pradhan, 2/22)

And one thing was clear this weekend as the nation's governors gathered in Washington: Many of the states that could be affected [if the Supreme Court strikes down the health law subsidies] are not prepared for the potential fallout. In rounds of interviews at the National Governors Association's winter meeting, several governors indicated they could do little about the estimated 8 million people who could drop coverage if they were to lose health insurance subsidies later this year. (Peoples, 2/22)

Governors in states across the country have begun pressuring Congressional leaders and making contingency plans in case the Supreme Court decides that millions of people who get subsidies to pay for health care under the Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional. ... Governors of those 34 states [that could lose federal funding for subsidies], even the Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act, say they are concerned at the chaos that could ensue if the court rules the federal subsidies unconstitutional. (Wilson, 2/21)

With a Supreme Court decision on health-insurance subsidies on the horizon, U.S. governors are bracing themselves, weighing what states that opted for a federal health-insurance marketplace under President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul might do if a ruling were to affect subsidies in those states. ... Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, chairman of the NGA, said that one question that governors are asking is whether states that run their own marketplaces can cover residents of other states. "This is new ground,'' said Hickenlooper, a Democrat who opted for a state marketplace. "I don’t think anyone understands exactly what the alternatives are, depending on how the ruling comes." (Niquette, 2/21)

Millions of people could lose health insurance subsidies in the coming months if the Supreme Court sides with opponents of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. (2/22)

Since the Supreme Court accepted the case for argument, the plaintiffs are long shots no more, and a major legal battle has erupted among outside forces armed only with amicus curiae, or friend of the court, briefs. Critics of the law coordinated their briefs, as did supporters of the Obama administration, to a lesser degree. And those dueling briefs could have consequences, said Anthony J. Franze, a lawyer at Arnold & Porter in Washington who systematically reviews amicus curiae briefs filed with the Supreme Court. (Pear, 2/21)

Sometimes the plaintiffs in Supreme Court cases are carefully selected and thoroughly vetted. Sometimes they come out of nowhere to become important symbols of justice. ... But if you’ve read anything about David King, Douglas Hurst, Brenda Levy or Rose Luck, the four Virginians at the heart of the latest challenge to Obamacare that the Supreme Court will hear early next month, it is likely to have been about whether they are qualified to be in court. (Barnes, 2/22)

Republican efforts to replace the federal health law have been given new urgency by the Supreme Court. As soon as this spring, the court could invalidate health insurance subsidies available to millions of Americans if it rules for the challengers in a case called King v. Burwell. ... But as the party that controls Congress, some Republicans also fear the potential for a backlash if they don’t have a plan to help those who would effectively be stripped of coverage, many of whom are voters in Republican-led states. (Rovner, 2/23)

About 800,000 taxpayers who enrolled in insurance policies through HealthCare.gov received erroneous tax information from the government and were urged on Friday to hold off on filing tax returns until the error could be corrected. The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from congressional Democrats, also announced that it would give several million people more time to buy health insurance so they could comply with federal law and avoid tax penalties. (Pear, 2/20)

Q. What if I already filed my taxes using incorrect data? A. Though the Treasury and the I.R.S. said they were still reviewing the issue and would provide more guidance soon, tax experts said individuals who already filed would probably have to amend their returns. This means some taxpayers may have to pay money back, and others could receive a larger refund. ... Q. What if I need to file my taxes now? A. If you can wait until you get the new form, you probably should. But if you cannot, you will need to find the correct amount of the “second-lowest-cost Silver plan” that applied to your household in 2014. You can use the tool on HealthCare.gov, or you can call the Marketplace for help. “If you have a more complicated living situation, using that tool is not straightforward,” said Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center. (Bernard, 2/20)

The federal government sent incorrect tax information to about 800,000 people who purchased health insurance last year through HealthCare.gov and asked them to delay filing their returns, Obama administration officials said Friday. The mistake, which affects a critical part of the president's signature health-care law, could slow tax refunds for many Americans who depend on the money for their family's ­finances. The people who received the wrong information rely on subsidies to help purchase medical coverage through HealthCare.gov that otherwise might be unaffordable. (Millman, 2/20)

In a new setback for the health care law and the people it's supposed to help, the government said Friday it made a tax-reporting error that's fouling up the filings of nearly a million Americans. After a successful sign-up season, the latest goof could signal new problems with the complex links between President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and the nation's income tax system.(Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/20)

The Obama administration said Friday it would allow people to sign up for insurance plans on HealthCare.gov through April, and at the same time said it sent some 800,000 people incorrect tax statements about their coverage in 2014. The announcement of the inaccurate forms caps the rough first year for the health-care law, and means many taxpayers will have to wait to file tax returns. The error affects as many as 20% of the statements sent by the federal insurance website to people who signed up for coverage for 2014 and received tax credits to offset the cost of their premiums. (Radnofsky, 2/20)

About 800,000 Obamacare enrollees received incorrect subsidy information on the 1095-A tax forms sent by the federal exchange, healthcare.gov, the Obama administration acknowledged Friday. Separately, bowing to pressure from consumer advocates and fellow Democrats, the administration is extending Obamacare enrollment for those who learn they owe a penalty for being uninsured in 2014. (Luhby, 2/20)

Health officials confirmed Friday that the at least 800,000 Obamacare enrollees received the wrong tax information, which will likely delay their tax returns by several months and potentially affect the amount of tax credits they receive for health coverage. (Ehley, 2/20)

The 800,000 Americans who’ve just gotten erroneous tax forms for their Obamacare subsidy can blame a glitch in HealthCare.gov that used the wrong year’s data for the calculations. Or, as one government health source put it, “an intermittent defect in code” that may cause tens of thousands of people to have to refile their taxes. Precisely how and where that mistake was made is still being investigated. Whether it was a coding error or greater technological flaw, it’s only the latest sign that HealthCare.gov still has deep troubles despite a second enrollment season that went far more smoothly than the first. (Norman, 2/20)

The government says some of the tax information sent to Americans enrolled in Obamacare is wrong, telling taxpayers to hold off filing their 2014 returns. (Goldman, 2/21)

The Obama administration revealed Friday that it sent about 800,000 HealthCare.gov customers a tax form containing the wrong information, and asked them to hold off on filing their 2014 taxes. (2/20)

An estimated 3 million to 6 million individuals and households that face a tax penalty for not having health insurance in 2014 will get an extra 45 days to secure 2015 coverage – and thereby escape the same penalty next year. (Pugh, 2/20)

The White House is giving some uninsured people six more weeks to sign up for coverage in order to avoid Obamacare’s tax penalty for not having health insurance. (Ehley, 2/20)

The health law requires everyone who can afford insurance to obtain it — and charges people who don’t a fee. The fees that will be hitting people’s mailboxes for failing to get insurance last year will be relatively low — $95 a person or 1 percent of their income — but they rise next year. Now people who get those bills and still haven’t signed up for 2015 will get a chance to sign up in March and April. Federal officials provided no estimates of how many people would be affected, but it will certainly be less than six million, because not everyone facing a fine has failed to get insurance for this year. (Sanger-Katz, 2/20)

There's another Obamacare break — the administration is offering a special enrollment period for Americans who didn't realize they would have to pay a tax if they don't have health insurance. (Fox, 2/20)

Taxpayers are just starting to learn the complex connection between the Affordable Care Act and taxes. For the first time, taxpayers will have to state whether they had health insurance through an employer, a health insurance exchange or a private insurance policy. (Yip, 2/22)

The window for many Californians to sign up for health coverage widened Friday when the state exchange said it would extend this month’s deadline to enroll in a plan until the end of April. (Sangree, 2/20)

Next year’s window for signing up for insurance under the health law will clash with Christmas, but not Halloween, as part of a final rule released late Friday by federal officials. Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are still affected as well. Open enrollment for 2016 coverage under the Affordable Care Act will start Nov. 1, 2015 and end Jan. 31, 2016, according to revised regulations. Obama administration officials had previously suggested starting Oct. 1, 2015 and finishing Dec. 15, 2015. (Radnofsky, 2/20)

The Obama administration is moving up next year’s healthcare enrollment period by about three weeks, designating Jan. 31 as the last day to sign up. Enrollment would begin Nov. 1, instead of Nov. 15, and would last three months, according to a final rule released late Friday. (Ferris, 2/20)

The Obama administration has blocked health plans without hospital benefits that many large employers argued fulfilled their obligations under the Affordable Care Act. Companies with millions of workers, mainly in lower-wage industries such as staffing, retailing, restaurants and hotels that had not offered health coverage previously, had been flocking toward such insurance for 2015. Plans lacking substantial coverage of hospital and physician services do not qualify as "minimum value" coverage under the law and so do not shield employers from fines of $3,000 or more per worker, the Department of Health and Human Services said late Friday. (Hancock, 2/23)

In the latest in a long string of delays in enforcing the rules under the health care overhaul, the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that they will wait until summer to start enforcing financial penalties on small businesses that provide so-called Health Reimbursement Arrangements to their employees. Under HRAs, employers provide spending accounts that their workers can use to cover a portion of the cost of buying individual health plans. The arrangements, which give employers a tax-free means to help pay for their workers’ health costs, do not comply with insurance standards in the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, according to Treasury guidance issued in the fall of 2013. (Harrison, 2/19)

Like many families nowadays, the Dufeks had a health plan with a high deductible — $4,000 in their case. But that alone is not what overwhelmed them. The blow came first from the health plan's high cap on out-of-pocket expenses, and then from the family's facing the same expense again with the start of a new year. That's a risk that remains even with the new limits on out-of-pocket expenses under the Affordable Care Act. (Boulton, 2/21)

To understand America’s fragmented food safety inspection system, consider a slice of frozen pizza. The pepperoni is examined by the Agriculture Department, the cheese and tomato sauce by the Food and Drug Administration, each agency using its own methods for inspecting and testing. If someone gets ill sampling that slice’s tasty goodness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might sound the alarm, but it would fall to the F.D.A. to pressure the pizza maker for a recall. The Obama administration wants a single new agency to sweep all that away: the Food Safety Administration, a colossus that would be housed within the Department of Health and Human Services. (Nixon, 2/20)

A panel of nutrition experts recruited by the Obama administration to help develop the next set of dietary guidelines released its long-awaited recommendations this week. The panel addressed everything from red meat to coffee, unveiling a 570-page report that will be used by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to craft new diet guidelines later this year. ... About two-thirds of all adults, or 155 million people, are overweight or obese. Roughly half have at least one preventable disease, including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. Poor eating habits and physical inactivity are playing a major role. The situation is forcing the U.S. health care system to focus on treatment rather than prevention, the committee said. So what to eat? The panel suggests more fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low or non-fat dairy, seafood, legumes and nuts. What to limit? Red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened food and drinks, and refined grains. (Tracy, 2/21)

Los Angeles County health officials are attempting to assuage the public’s fears surrounding a deadly outbreak of drug-resistant bacteria at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, saying the episode is “not a threat to public health.” ... [Dr. David Feinberg, president of the UCLA Health System] said the hospital has implemented new sterilization procedures that exceed Food and Drug Administration requirements. Since then, no new cases have been discovered. (Mai-Duc and Terhune, 2/20)

The U.S. government is close to finalizing instructions to prevent medical devices responsible for transmitting "superbugs" from spreading the potentially fatal pathogens between patients, the scientist leading the effort said. The new protocol for the reusable devices, called duodenoscopes, is being developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose disease detectives have investigated duodenoscope-transmitted infections since 2013. (Begley, 2/20)

Thursday, in a notice to hospitals and doctors, FDA officials warned that the devices, known as duodenoscopes, are designed in such a way that fully cleaning them may not be possible. Contaminated devices are believed to have transmitted drug-resistant infections to patients at several hospitals over the last two years, including two who died at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center. The review of the design and performance of the problematic scopes remained "ongoing," the agency said in a statement. Despite the danger that has been found so far, "FDA is concerned by the risk to public health that would be created by removing the scopes from the market," the statement said. "No alternative devices" are available to replace the scopes, it added. (Willman, 2/20)

Hospitals nationally are scrambling to figure out how to keep using a controversial medical device that benefits patients while avoiding another deadly bacterial outbreak like the one at UCLA Medical Center. ... Federal regulators aren't pulling the devices from the market, saying that would do more harm to public health because they offer life-saving treatments that can't be performed otherwise. Experts say a redesign of these duodenoscopes that are so hard to clean might be years away. (Terhune, 2/20)

The latest outbreak of a deadly drug-resistant bacterial infection spread through contaminated endoscopes has prompted calls for re-evaluating the adequacy of currently recommended cleaning and reprocessing procedures. It's also led some observers to question why the Food and Drug Administration didn't act sooner despite previous outbreaks involving the scopes. Leaders at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where as many as 179 people were exposed to drug-resistant bacteria while undergoing endoscopic procedures, say the manufacturer-recommended protocols they followed were inadequate. (Rice and Johnson, 2/21)

It was a memorable political ad: Gov. Scott Walker spoke directly into the camera in a 30-second spot last fall and called abortion an “agonizing” decision. He described himself as pro-life but, borrowing the language of the abortion rights movement, pointed to legislation he signed that leaves “the final decision to a woman and her doctor.” That language was gone when Mr. Walker met privately with Iowa Republicans in a hotel conference room last month, according to a person who attended the meeting. There, he highlighted his early support for a “personhood amendment,” which defines life as beginning at conception and would effectively prohibit all abortions and some methods of birth control. (Gabriel, 2/22)

The star ratings of nearly a third of the nation’s nursing homes were lowered on Friday, as federal officials readjusted quality standards in the face of criticism that the ratings were inaccurate and artificially inflated. Federal officials said they hoped the changes would make it easier for consumers to differentiate between facilities, as well as spur nursing homes to make improvements. (Thomas, 2/20)

Nearly a third of the nation's nursing homes are getting lower scores on the government's five-star quality scale, a reflection of tougher standards for ratings used by nearly 1.5 million consumers to assess care at more than 15,000 facilities. The new ratings, posted Friday on the government's Nursing Home Compare website and in USA Today, are the result of sweeping changes in the way facilities are evaluated. Among other things, the revamped assessments include measures of facilities' use of anti-psychotic drugs, which can pose serious risks for older adults, especially those with dementia. They also use more refined metrics to check for adequate staffing, a critical component of good care. (Eisler and Schnaars, 2/20)

The federal agency that evaluates nursing homes will consider more information in its ranking system -- including the use of anti-psychotic medication -- after news reports and lawmakers last year raised questions about the system's integrity. (Fritze, 2/20)

Nearly a quarter of Iowa's nursing homes will see their performance ratings drop as a result of changes in the way the federal government assesses standards of care at long-term care facilities. The revamped ratings, which will be posted Friday on the government's popular Nursing Home Compare website, raise the bar on what criteria must be met to achieve a top score on its five-star scale. (Kummer, 2/20)

The daughter of a teacher’s aide and a gas station manager, Ms. Waugh, like many other hard-working and often overlooked Americans, has secured a spot in a profoundly transformed middle class. While the group continues to include large numbers of people sitting at desks, far fewer middle-income workers of the 21st century are donning overalls. Instead, reflecting the biggest change in recent years, millions more are in scrubs. ... In 1980, 1.4 million jobs in health care paid a middle class wage: $40,000 to $80,000 a year in today’s money. Now, the figure is 4.5 million. The pay of registered nurses — now the third-largest middle-income occupation and one that continues to be overwhelmingly female — has risen strongly along with the increasing demands of the job. The median salary of $61,000 a year in 2012 was 55 percent greater, adjusted for inflation, than three decades earlier. (Searcey, Porter and Gabeloff, 2/22)

Home care workers are joining a nationwide movement to raise the wages of low-paid Americans with meetings and rallies in more than 20 cities the next two weeks. The campaign, which kicks off Monday in Carson City, Nev., was inspired by fast food and retail worker protests the past two years that helped spark minimum wage hikes in many states and prompted Walmart to boost its pay floor last week. Home care aides joined some of those rallies, but this is their first independent push. (Davidson, 2/22)

As hospitals increasingly lose patients to medical care delivered in clinics and home settings, hospital operators are escalating their efforts to shrink capacity. Hospitals are operating with fewer beds or closing outright, in some cases to make way for new ambulatory-care centers. In Lakewood, Ohio, where chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are just as prevalent as in the rest of the country, the city is about to close its only hospital, whose 200 beds are typically half empty. With three other hospitals within seven miles, the low occupancy rate makes city-owned Lakewood Hospital the high-cost provider in the area. (Evans, 2/21)

Bucking the nationwide trend, U.S. children's hospitals' staffed beds and admissions grew slightly in 2013, according to American Hospital Association data available in this week's By the Numbers. Industry experts say the outlook for children's hospitals in the years ahead remains positive. Demographics are favorable and there are few alternatives for treating kids with serious medical conditions. (Sandler, 2/21)

In the past five years, more and more businesses have been investing in their own in-house medical centers, hoping to save on employer-provided health insurance by keeping their workers out of emergency rooms. One such company is Maryland Live Casino, which has made free medical services available to employees and their families since the Anne Arundel County gaming hall opened in 2012. (Gregg, 2/22)

As they move to exchange patient information with hospitals and other health care partners, doctors are suffering sticker shock: The vendors of the health care software want thousands of dollars to unlock the data so they can be shared. (Allen, 2/23)

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris on Friday approved the hotly debated sale of a chain of six struggling Catholic hospitals — including two in Los Angeles County — but imposed strict conditions on how they will be managed. The requirements left the future of the Daughters of Charity Health System hospitals in doubt — at least for several days. Prime Healthcare Services Inc. of Ontario said it would need days to review Harris’ ruling before deciding whether to proceed with the purchase, which includes St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles. (Pfeifer and Panzar, 2/20)

After months of intense review and several fiery public hearings, California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Friday approved the sale of the Daughters of Charity Health System to a controversial Southern California hospital chain for $843 million. (Seipel, 2/20)

Blessing a proposed hospital sale that has divided powerful health care unions, California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Friday approved Prime Healthcare’s purchase of six nonprofit hospitals comprising the Daughters of Charity Health System. (White, 2/20)

A few years ago, the New York City Human Resources Administration decided to try a new way to root out fraud among people receiving government benefits. Data detectives began running benefit recipients through a computerized pattern-recognition system. They discovered that the behavior of a small percentage of people stood out. The anomalies in themselves didn’t constitute fraud, but they pointed the agency’s data scientists in potentially fruitful directions. (Singer, 2/20)

Over the course of a decade, California lawmakers have considered a dozen bills to regulate the use of psychiatric drugs in the nation's largest foster care system. Yet, despite the alarm over children medicated as young as 4 and teens so doped they drooled and became obese, just one became law: a bill to speed up court approval so foster children could get drugs more quickly. (de Sa, 2/21)

They are the two darlings of Fairfax County. Inova, the largest health care provider in Northern Virginia and easily the largest employer in a county full of Fortune 500 companies. George Mason University, the onetime commuter school that grew into the top research university in the commonwealth. ... Both organizations’ headquarters are within a short drive of the 117-acre campus Inova plans to purchase for a center of genomics and personalized medicine, an endeavor that J. Knox Singleton, Inova chief executive, says will require multiple university partnerships. And yet the two cannot seem to see eye to eye on what Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) called the centerpiece to “building a new Virginia economy.” (O'Connell, 2/22)

Donuts are out, whole-wheat muffins in, and Virginia’s General Assembly is fed up: It wants to bring back the old sugary school bake sale. Federal guidelines that took effect this school year have banished sales of nutritionally dubious treats to students during school hours. Anything sold while school is in session must meet the same nutritional guidelines as school lunch and breakfast. That might be good for the fight against childhood obesity, but it has taken a big bite out of bake-sale proceeds at schools such as Brooke Point High School in Stafford County. (Vozzella, 2/21)

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed a bill that would require officials at nonprofit hospitals to disclose any financial benefits they stand to gain if the hospital is bought by a for-profit entity. Malloy’s bill would require the disclosure as part of the approval process, and he and other proponents said it would increase transparency. (Savino, 2/21)

The CMS will not renew a Medicaid waiver in Florida expiring in June that provides more than $1 billion a year to help the state's hospitals cover uncompensated-care costs for low-income and uninsured patients. The move may put additional pressure on state Republican leaders to consider expanding Medicaid. Since 2005, Florida has had a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver that establishes a low-income funding pool to aid the state's hospitals. The state has received between $1 billion and $2 billion annually to support its safety net providers. (Dickson, 2/21)

The Agency for Health Care Administration on Friday announced it will let 22 new nursing homes open across the state, and will allow another 11 existing facilities to expand. The highly competitive bid process ends Florida’s 14-year ban on new construction. (Aboraya, 2/21)

Three percent of patients hospitalized in Pennsylvania in fiscal 2014 were "super-utilizers" - people admitted five or more times in a year, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Those 21,308 people accounted for 11 percent of total admissions and 14 percent of hospital days. The report estimated that super-utilizers were responsible for $545 million - 14 percent - of Medicare payments for inpatient stays and $216 million - 17 percent - of Medicaid payments in 2012. (Burling, 2/20)

Hundreds of people with developmental and mental health disabilities around North Carolina are faced with losing their homes – again – as state funding to support them is running out. The people at risk are those who live in group homes with six or fewer residents who have part of their living expenses paid for by state dollars. They’re people who lost Medicaid-funded personal care services in 2012 when the General Assembly tightened guidelines on who could receive those dollars. (Hoban, 2/23)

We keep reading that ObamaCare is working beautifully—a liberal reverie interrupted only by those moments when the law is not. The latest arrived Friday, featuring another political exemption from the individual mandate. This tax-filing season is exposing Americans for the first time to the ObamaCare command to buy health coverage or else pay a penalty—or pay maybe, kind of, to some extent. The White House carved out vast exceptions to the mandate last year to assuage its unpopularity, but a few saps are still discovering they must pay 1% of their gross income or $95, whichever is higher, for going uninsured. This remains unpopular, and thus we get calls for more regulatory improvisation. (2/20)

This is the first tax season in which people are being hit with Affordable Care Act penalties. Unsurprisingly, opinion polls show that many uninsured don’t yet understand the health-care law’s deadlines, subsidies and fines. To many, the penalties will come as a very unwelcome surprise. Obama administration planning threatened to make this entirely predictable situation worse. But, as of Friday, the Health and Human Services Department is in the process of ameliorating the sting that some uninsured will soon face. That’s good, but may not go far enough. (2/21)

Ever since President Obama unveiled his health care plan in 2009, critics have questioned its lofty promise to bring affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. Now statistics for the second year are largely in hand and the verdict is indisputable: Its disastrous 2013 rollout notwithstanding, the Affordable Care Act has achieved nearly all of its ambitious goals. Most important, just three key provisions — creation of exchanges with subsidies for those who qualify, expansion of Medicaid and minimum standards for insurance plans — have benefited at least 31 million Americans. (Steven Rattner, 2/21)

Will it take the repeal of the Affordable Care Act or its evisceration by the Supreme Court for us to appreciate what it’s done? ... Because of the law, at least 10 million fewer Americans are uninsured — and that’s a conservative number. The drop in the nation’s uninsured rate is the largest since the early 1970s, when Medicaid was still taking hold and both Medicare and Medicaid were expanded to cover people with disabilities. ... Some more numbers: 87 percent of the people who signed up on the exchanges qualified for subsidies, and the average assistance to each was $268 per month. Perhaps some out there would rather not have government help people buy health insurance, but this seems to me a good and decent use of our tax money. (E.J. Dionne Jr., 2/22)

On health care, the G.O.P. has profited from the unpopularity of Obamacare, but we are now at Year 6 and counting without anything more than the pretense of a conservative alternative. These failures have not been for want of policy options; they’ve been for want of ingenuity and will. The list of plausible conservative health care alternatives now literally fills a book — “Overcoming Obamacare,” from The Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein, which any G.O.P. presidential contender would do well to at least pretend to have read. The best of these alternatives would allow a Republican candidate to promise, as Romney did not, to mostly maintain Obama’s coverage expansion (albeit with less comprehensive coverage) while lowering health insurance premiums for most Americans. (Ross Douthat, 2/21)

One of ObamaCare’s many unfortunate effects is its centralization of the nation’s health-care debate. Even Republicans now assume only Washington can fix America’s broken health-care system—look at the various federal-centric ObamaCare replacement plans that have been released in recent months. But state lawmakers can play an important role in improving health outcomes, lowering costs and increasing choices for patients. Fortunately, elected officials in some states are showing promise in this regard. For example, legislators in South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire and Washington have recently introduced bills to weaken or repeal their states’ “certificate of need” laws, which increase health-care costs and empower bureaucrats and lobbyists rather than patients. (Nancy Pfotenhauer and Nathan Nascimento, 2/20)

When it comes to Medicaid expansion, it’s time for the Missouri Republicans who control the Legislature to play a high-stakes game of truth or dare. If legislative leaders like Speaker of the House John Diehl, R-Town and Country, and Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, really don’t believe that Medicaid expansion would be good for both the Missouri economy and the general revenue budget, then they should hold a hearing and prove Medicaid expansion advocates wrong. One real hearing. One wide-open debate. One moment where the truth matters. You would think that a party that is so convinced that Obamacare is the job-killing scourge of a nation that it must be stopped at all costs wouldn’t be afraid to make its case, right? You would be wrong. (2/22)

Germs that are resistant to antibiotics are cropping up with alarming frequency at American hospitals. A lethal “superbug” known as CRE infected seven patients at the Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center and killed two of them. The germs were apparently transmitted on inadequately sterilized medical scopes. The episode brought an immediate reminder and warning from the Food and Drug Administration that the complex design of the instruments, known as duodenoscopes, makes them hard to clean after they are used. It is imperative that government agencies, medical institutions and the manufacturer take more aggressive steps to ensure sterilization and protect patients. (2/23)

For two generations, Americans ate fewer eggs and other animal products because policy makers told them that fat and cholesterol were bad for their health. Now both dogmas have been debunked in quick succession. ... How did experts get it so wrong? Certainly, the food industry has muddied the waters through its lobbying. But the primary problem is that nutrition policy has long relied on a very weak kind of science: epidemiological, or “observational,” studies in which researchers follow large groups of people over many years. But even the most rigorous epidemiological studies suffer from a fundamental limitation. At best they can show only association, not causation. Epidemiological data can be used to suggest hypotheses but not to prove them. (Nina Teicholz, 2/20)

Virginia’s General Assembly is poised to act on legislation to protect against meningococcal meningitis, a particularly deadly and almost always destructive set of infections. The proposed law would require vaccination against this disease for entry into middle school and a booster in high school. Despite significant strides in promoting vaccination and a mandate at the collegiate level in Virginia, meningococcal meningitis, which describes different strains of bacterial meningitis, is still very much a threat. (Harvey Hodges, 2/20)

In approving the sale of six cash-straped Daughters of Charity hospitals to Prime Healthcare Services of Ontario, California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris took pains to guard against Prime reducing the types of care available or shifting the focus away from the low-income and elderly patients that make up the bulk of their current patients. These steps included unprecedented requirements to keep most of the hospitals open with their major services intact for at least 10 years, twice as long as Prime had pledged. The question now for Prime is whether it can do those things without winding up in the same financial mess that forced the Daughters to look for a buyer. (Jon Healey, 2/21)