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Republicans scored a victory early Thursday, pushing a measure through the House Ways and Means Committee repealing tax penalties on people who don’t buy insurance. House Republican leaders are under pressure to ease passage through the House by making changes that appease conservatives who want a more aggressive repeal of the ACA. Those changes risk further jeopardizing support in the Senate, where centrist Republicans have said they are concerned the proposal will cause too many people to lose coverage, particularly those with low incomes. (Armour, Hackman and Rubin, 3/9)

The critical House Ways and Means Committee gave a pre-dawn approval Thursday morning to a major part of the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, moving Republicans a step closer toward a full vote on the measure over the growing opposition of senators, health care providers and some conservatives. Republicans on the panel held together and rejected a slew of Democratic amendments while doing little on their own to change the health bill. (Kaplan, Goodnough and Steinhauer, 3/9)

Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee took a major step toward overturning wide swaths of President Barack Obama’s health care law in a markup Thursday morning, advancing their part of a House bill at 4:16 a.m. on a party-line vote of 23-16. The House Budget Committee is expected to combine the language with another repeal measure the Energy and Commerce Committee oversees before the full House floor can vote on the package. Republicans are moving forward with an aggressive timeline to have both chambers clear the legislation before they recess next on April 7. (Mershon, 3/9)

House Speaker Paul Ryan defended what has been a bumpy rollout for House Republicans’ plan to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday night, calling early complaints about the bill "typical growing pains." Ryan said it reflected months of planning and represented just one step of a three-step plan to fully repeal and replace the law, during an appearance on Fox News' "Tucker." (Jackson, 3/8)

Democrats on the two committees marking up the proposed American Health Care Act did everything they could to block the bill's advance until the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scores it on cost and coverage impact, which is expected sometime next week. They also pressed Republicans on why they are trying to ram the bill through with no hearings or expert witnesses, unlike the extensive hearing process preceding passage of the ACA. Democrats stressed the likelihood that the bill's reduced premium tax credits and Medicaid spending cuts would increase the nation's uninsured rate, drive up uncompensated care and cause hospitals to lay off workers. (Dickson and Meyer, 3/8)

House Democrats on Wednesday fought to stall an Obamacare repeal bill that Republicans, still facing deep intraparty divisions over the measure, are trying to push toward the House floor and eventually the White House. The first public debates over the bill were a mirror image of the bitter 2009 debate over the passage of Obamacare, with accusations about a lack of transparency and the majority party rushing things through. But this time, it was Democrats leveling the charges. (Haberkorn, Demko and Cancryn, 3/8)

A House Energy and Commerce Committee markup of the Republican draft language to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law continued overnight and into the morning largely as a result of tactics by the Democrats to delay the legislation from advancing. The marathon markup was expected to continue well beyond sunrise.  After more than 18 hours, the panel had addressed only six of the over 100 potential amendments on the legislation. Four of those were defeated by the GOP majority. Two were offered and withdrawn by Republican lawmakers. (Williams, 3/9)

A look at opposing sides as Congress considers proposed Republican changes to the Obama administration health law. (3/9)

House Rules Chairman Pete Sessions on Wednesday angrily warned White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to stay in "his lane" after Spicer said a bill to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law would be considered in the House under an open rule. ... Sessions' remarks were met with brief silence by the committee. “I’ll pass that on,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said to laughs in the room. Spicer, discussing the GOP bill to dismantle the health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152), said that "every member of the House and the Senate will be able to have their opportunity to have amendments offered through the committee process and on the floor.” (Mejdrich 3/8)

Work on the fiscal 2018 budget resolution appears on hold until after Congress passes a repeal of the 2010 health care law. But Republicans on the Budget and Appropriations committees do not appear concerned about the delayed timeline or the upcoming budget request from the White House, which will ask lawmakers to increase defense discretionary spending by $54 billion and pay for it by an equal cut to domestic discretionary spending bills. (Shutt, 3/8)

[House Speaker Paul] Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are trying to build momentum to fast-track the legislation past a groundswell of opposition from Democrats, small-government conservatives, moderate Republicans and healthcare groups who have created an unlikely coalition against it. (Mascaro and Levey, 3/8)

House Speaker Paul Ryan has used a soft touch to win over rebellious conservatives. But, with his Obamacare replacement bill at stake, he’s delivering a tougher message: It’s time to fall in line. “This is an all-hands-on-deck, because you know what? We all ran on repealing and replacing Obamacare,” Ryan said Wednesday, warning that the health care system will collapse if Congress doesn’t act. “This is why we have to pass it with something better.” The with-us-or-against-us tone is a departure for Ryan, who has up to now trod carefully around the fiercely anti-establishment members who helped oust his predecessor, John Boehner. (Edgerton, 3/9)

Republican governors complain that a GOP proposal to replace former President Barack Obama's health care law would force millions of lower-income earners off insurance rolls or stick states with the cost of keeping them covered. Governors, especially those from political battleground states, were generally cool to the bill put forth in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. Some signaled that they would continue working on their own legislation to compete with the measure introduced Monday. (Beaumont and Noon, 3/8)

In the days since House Republicans unveiled a replacement to the Affordable Care Act, some GOP governors have a message: Not so fast. The proposed legislation, which is supported by President Trump, would, among other things, make significant changes to Medicaid programs that have been expanded under the Affordable Care Act, also commonly referred to as Obamacare. (Lee, 3/8)

Hard-line conservatives have threatened to upend the GOP’s drive to replace Obamacare, but the real peril may come from a quieter group of moderates. The two dozen House Republicans who outran President Donald Trump at home — in some cases surviving even as Hillary Clinton won their districts — are now facing a vote on health care that could put their political careers on the line. Though Obamacare has never been widely popular, the law has gained support in recent weeks as Republicans inch closer to repealing it. And the GOP plan to replace it is drawing fire from important constituencies, from hospitals to AARP. (Cheney and Bade, 3/8)

Some of the most conservative members of the House are at a crossroads over the plan from GOP leadership and the White House to replace the Affordable Care Act. Those lawmakers say their choice is between supporting a bill that goes against many of their principles, or falling in line behind President Trump — who won overwhelming support in their district. (Taylor, 3/8)

Speaker Paul Ryan guarantees he’ll muscle the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill through the House. But even if he manages to execute that impressive feat, Republicans will then have to clear an even more imposing hurdle: the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can lose just two votes and still pass repeal legislation on party lines. But at least eight Republicans have already loudly complained about the bill’s direction. (Everett, 3/8)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was “exactly right,” when he tweeted Tuesday that the Republican legislation to replace Obamacare is open to negotiation. “As drafted, I do not believe this bill would pass the United States Senate,” Cruz said in a conference call with Texas reporters. Cruz will have an opportunity to tell the president his thoughts on how the bill can be improved to pass Senate muster at a private dinner at the White House Wednesday evening at which Cruz, his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters, Caroline and Catherine, will dine with the president and first lady. (Tilove, 3/8)

The Republican plan to replace Obamacare has a health problem.On Wednesday, the U.S.’s biggest advocacy group for doctors came out against House Republicans’ legislation, while the insurance lobby expressed concerns with the bill, adding to growing opposition from the country’s top trade groups for physicians and hospitals who worry that it will leave more people uninsured or with limited coverage. In a letter to Congress, the American Medical Association said it “cannot support the AHCA as it is currently written,” referring to the American Health Care Act, as the Republican proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is named. The association calls itself the largest physician advocacy group in the country, and backed the nomination of Tom Price as President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary and point person on the health law. (Tracer and Edney, 3/8)

Major associations representing physicians, hospitals, insurers and seniors all leveled sharp attacks against the House GOP’s plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, as some Republicans publicly questioned whether the measure can clear the House of Representatives. While industry groups warned that the proposal could leave vulnerable Americans with fewer protections than they now have, GOP leaders pressed ahead, bringing legislation before two key committees that are expected to approve the bills by week’s end. They were also working in concert with the White House to win over conservatives, who have complained that the proposal preserves too much of the current law. (DeBonis and Eilperin, 3/8)

House Republicans scored a pre-dawn triumph Thursday in their effort to scuttle former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, but it masked deeper problems as hospitals, doctors and consumer groups mounted intensifying opposition to the GOP health care drive. After nearly 18 hours of debate and over two dozen party-line votes, Republicans pushed legislation through the Ways and Means Committee abolishing the tax penalty Obama's statute imposes on people who don't purchase insurance and reshaping how millions of Americans buy medical care. (Fram and Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/9)

Associations representing virtually every type of hospital wrote to members of Congress on Wednesday to voice their opposition to the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. "We are very concerned that the draft legislative proposal being considered by the House committees could lead to tremendous instability for those seeking affordable coverage," read the letter from seven hospital associations. (O'Donnell, 3/8)

Influential groups representing hospitals and nurses came out on Wednesday against a Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, joining doctors and the retirees’ lobby to warn that it would lead to a rise in the uninsured. ... House Republicans have been left scrambling to marshal support from businesses and other interests that stand to benefit from lower taxes if the bill passes. Insurers are on the fence, and other powerful forces like pharmaceutical companies remain largely on the sidelines. (Goodnough, Pear and Kaplan, 3/8)

Powerful industry groups are taking sides in the politically charged fight over repealing and replacing ObamaCare. Healthcare associations, including those representing doctors and hospitals, have largely come out in opposition to the legislation from House Republicans. Meanwhile, some of the nation’s largest business groups have expressed support for it. (Wilson, 3/8)

An extensive list of major health care organizations that are opposing a Republican overhaul measure were consulted as it was crafted, but the White House says those groups’ views were cast aside in favor of a “patients-centric bill.” From the American Medical Association to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, to the American Hospital Association to the AARP, a seemingly ever-growing list of influential groups that backed the Obama administration’s 2010 overhaul push are opposed this time around. But each are part of the Washington “swamp” of plugged-in policy influencers that President Donald Trump vowed to drain, which his White House made clear Wednesday. (Bennett, 2/9)

How would insurers fare under the GOP's proposal to replace Obamacare?It depends. A review of profit results for the six health insurers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index since the start of 2014 — the year the Affordable Care Act rule went into effect that mandated that people who can afford coverage must get it or pay a fine — shows mixed results. (Shell, 3/8)

You might think of it as the legislative equivalent of flying into a storm without instruments. Two committees in the Republican-led House have begun drafting sweeping health legislation without the benefit of an objective estimate of its impact from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — a reckless move, critics say, considering that they are dealing with the well-being of tens of millions of Americans and an industry that accounts for close to one-fifth of the economy. (Tumulty and Ehrenfreund, 3/8)

House Republican leaders are set to take the politically risky gamble Wednesday of asking their colleagues to vote on a bill replacing the Affordable Care Act without official estimates of the GOP plan’s cost or coverage losses. By moving ahead without an official “score” from the Congressional Budget Office — an estimate of how much the bill would cost and how many people might lose coverage over the next 10 years — Republican leaders are asking members to vote on a bill without independent verification that it achieves what it claims. (Hackman, 3/8)

President Donald Trump’s spokesman went out of his way to cast doubt on Congress’ budget experts, perhaps anticipating disappointing results from a coming cost analysis of a Trump-backed plan to “repeal and replace” former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Too far out of his way. Citing the Congressional Budget Office’s earlier estimates on the Obama law, spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday, “If you’re looking at the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place.” (Taylor, 3/9)

So how did the CBO do at assessing the Democrats' Affordable Care Act? In general, the office had hits and misses in its assessment, predicting the measure would cost more than its eventual price tag but also estimating it would expand access to health insurance to more people that it eventually did. ... "I don’t think that CBO is above criticism," said Douglas Elmendorf, who was the agency's director during the initial debate. In his view, he and his colleagues assumed that fewer people would be willing to pay the penalties associated with going without coverage under Obama's overhaul than in fact were, and that they the financial help available to purchase insurance would encourage more people to enroll than ultimately did. (Ehrenfreund and Guo, 3/8)

Both Obamacare and the recent Republican replacement proposal use refundable tax credits to help people buy their health insurance. That is part of the reason the new G.O.P. bill is under fire from conservatives, who see it as a new entitlement program. But the structure of the tax credits is really different. Obamacare calculated the credits based on the cost of insurance in a given area and how much the purchaser could afford to pay. The Republican plan hands out tax credits on a flat basis, according to age. (Both plans cut off subsidies at a certain income level, on the assumption that high earners can pay their own way.) That means that the government subsidy you might get under the different plans would depend on a number of factors – age, income, address. (Quealy and Sanger-Katz, 3/8)

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, people who are older, lower-income or live in areas with higher premiums (such as Alaska and Arizona) receive larger tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, than they would under the Republican replacement plan. Some people who are younger, higher-income or live in areas with lower premiums (such as Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Washington) may receive additional assistance under the replacement plan. (Levey and Kim, 3/7)

House Republicans released a bill on March 6 that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The 123-page bill, named the American Health Care Act, includes major changes to healthcare in the nation. Here's a rundown of some key components of the law to track as markups take place this week. (Meyer, 3/8)

When House Republicans unveiled on Monday a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, one thing was immediately clear: the new approach could create a major shift in taxes for low-and-middle income people while delivering a $600 billion tax break, primarily to the rich. (Snell, 3/8)

A federal judge in Washington ruled in May that Congress must appropriate money annually for those subsidies. The White House must stop those payments, the judge ruled, even though it could result in chaos for the health care industry. But Republicans have abandoned that stance now that they control the White House and are trying to push health care legislation of their own through Congress. In their health care plan, Republicans keep the payments intact and are poised to treat them as mandatory spending. The flip-flop helps them to the tune of billions of dollars when it comes to assessing the cost of the legislation  — a major focus of the debate for the fiscal conservatives and deficit hawks that the backers of the repeal bill need to win over. (Mejdrich and Ruger, 3/9)

Some people across the country who have benefited from the ACA, concerned about Republican efforts to topple the law, are now rushing to get treatments, visit doctors and find alternative ways to pay for their medical costs. Republicans’ plan would provide tax credits to help people afford coverage, and it includes a mechanism for patients with certain health conditions. The party has long criticized the ACA, and longstanding opposition to the law among conservatives has powered the Republican repeal efforts. (Armour, 3/8)

President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) are promoting the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act in the face of mounting opposition. The plan -- which scraps most of the mandates and tax subsidies in the 2010 Affordable Care Act and replaces them with a new system of tax credits based on age and income -- has drawn sharp fire from conservatives who have dismissed it as “Obamacare lite” and from Democrats who warn that it would result in millions of Americans losing their health insurance. The fate of the plan is highly uncertain at this point. (Pianin, 3/8)

House Republicans who last year made good on longstanding promises to overhaul the mental health system could roll back coverage for millions of people with mental illness and addiction problems by overhauling Medicaid as part of an Obamacare repeal package. Legislation being marked up Wednesday would phase out Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which covers 1.2 million Americans with serious mental illness and substance abuse problems, as well as scrap baseline coverage requirements. The change means certain beneficiaries would no longer get coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatments guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act. (Ehley, 3/8)

The latest Republican health-care bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would eliminate funds for fundamental public health programs, including for the prevention of bioterrorism and  disease outbreaks, as well as money to provide immunizations and heart-disease screenings. (Sun, 3/8)

Republicans’ Obamacare replacement will make it easier to sport that beachy, potentially precancerous glow: Their American Health Care Act would do away with a 10 percent excise tax on tanning services...The move is part of the Republican plan to repeal billions of dollars in of levies associated with the law, including the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health plans, fees on health insurers, and the tanning tax, included in the Affordable Care Act because of indoor tanning’s link to skin cancer. (Greifeld, 3/8)

People in their 50s and 60s could be hit with higher health insurance premiums and less financial help paying for them under a proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act. The AARP released a statement opposing the House plan, which is called the American Health Care Act. (Ochoa, 3/8)

For the first time in eight years, Democrats are finally on offense on a key issue that could help them retake the congressional majority in 2018. As Republicans struggle to craft and pass a replacement for Obamacare, Democrats are sharpening their campaign messaging against Republicans such as [Rep. Erik] Paulsen. The new approach was on display at a House committee hearing early Wednesday. The panel rejected a Democratic request to postpone the hearing to consider the GOP plan to roll back and replace the Affordable Care Act. By noon, Democrats were holding Republicans’ feet to the fire. (Kane, 3/8)

Democrats in Congress are hopeful that a new tea party is emerging, a liberal one that will renew their electoral prospects in 2018. But perhaps they should be wary: The tea party was about more than bringing Republicans back to power. It was also about transforming the Republican Party into a more conservative entity. It was at times self-destructive, leaving the party deeply divided and costing it winnable elections. And it also contributed greatly to increased partisanship and dysfunction in Washington. ... On the ground, at the grass roots, liberals surely would prefer a Democratic majority, but they — like their conservative forbearers — are inspired by something more visceral. That is revulsion at Trump and rage at Republicans who stonewalled President Barack Obama for the bulk of his time in office. (Zeller, Miller and Curry, 3/9)

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones blasted House Republicans’ proposed bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, saying it would deal a devastating blow to the state’s health insurance marketplace and potentially leave 5 million Californians without health coverage. Jones, the state’s top health insurance regulator who is also running for California attorney general in 2018, cautioned that the GOP proposal would lead to a health care death spiral that would result in skyrocketing premiums and millions more uninsured. (Hart, 3/8)

Get your insurance through the individual marketplace set up through the Affordable Care Act? Well, if you’re someone who earns $16,394 to $47,520 you probably get a subsidy to help pay for it. But under the Republicans’ plan those subsidies will change, benefiting people who make up to $75,000 with tax credits to help pay for their health care. Low-income individuals will end up getting less. (Seipel, 3/8)

An antiabortion provision in the recently unveiled House GOP plan to replace Obamacare could make it impossible for most Californians to take advantage of proposed tax credits meant to offset the cost of health insurance. The Republican healthcare proposal would offer individual tax credits to people who do not get insurance from their employer, but it would prohibit that money from being spent on plans that cover abortion — a ban that would make virtually all health plans in the state ineligible for such credits. (Mason, 3/8)

Ohio hospitals and state lawmakers are worried provisions in the long-awaited Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could harm the state's successful Medicaid expansion and the financial stability of many hospitals. Plans to reduce federal funding for the state-run insurance plan for low-income residents and to limit enrollment could once again increase the number of uninsured patients in the state, they fear. (Zeltner, 3/8)

The U.S. House Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act would phase out Arizona's Medicaid expansion after 2020 and limit subsidies that help low-income residents purchase health insurance. Health-care experts predict the bill could mean fewer people would be covered under the Republican plan. (Alltucker, 3/8)

The Georgia House speaker said Wednesday that while he hasn’t had time to study the new Republican health care plan in Congress, he has initial concerns about it. David Ralston, a Republican from Blue Ridge, told attendees at the Atlanta Press Club that he has some worry that Georgia, as a state that has not expanded Medicaid, may be hurt under the new plan. And he said he hopes Republicans won’t rush a plan through Congress, and “will take the time to get it right.” (Miller, 3/8)

The growing conservative revolt over the House GOP’s healthcare proposal has carved a dividing line for candidates for Georgia’s 6th District seat struggling over whether to embrace a plan Donald Trump supports or oppose it amid a backlash from conservatives, Democrats and industry groups. (Bluestein, 3/9)

The Republican proposal to replace Obamacare has big implications for Connecticut residents who purchase individual health insurance plans, depending on different factors like age and income level. Young people with high incomes or who live in low-premium states like Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington, could receive larger assistance under the replacement plan, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Ba Tran, 3/8)

There are big implications for Connecticut’s single biggest source of coverage. That would be Medicaid, which covers nearly 770,000 poor children and adults, and people with disabilities. Approximately 217,000 people – low-income adults without minor children – are covered by a portion of the state’s Medicaid program that was created by the Affordable Care Act. If you’re not among the one in five Connecticut residents covered by Medicaid, the program still has big implications for you as a taxpayer: Medicaid is the state’s largest source of federal funds, and the largest single line item in the state budget. (Levin Becker, 3/8)

During a day of acrimonious partisanship over the future of America’s health care system, Rep. John Larson on Wednesday was among the Democrats who tried to alter and slow the progress of a bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The American Health Care Act was the subject of twin markups in the House Ways and Means Committee, of which Larson is a member, and the Energy and Commerce Committee. (Radelat, 3/8)

Closer to home, the bill is sparking concerns from advocates for seniors and people with disabilities. Grace Smith, executive director of the Council on Aging of Middle Tennessee, said a provision that would allow insurers to charge older shoppers up to five times more than younger people is alarming. Seniors will make up more than one-fifth of the state's population in the coming years. (Fletcher, 3/8)

Gov. Scott Walker would not say Wednesday whether he supports House Speaker Paul Ryan's plan to replace Obamacare in its current form, repeatedly calling it "a work in progress" at a pair of stops. The governor and other Republicans for six years have railed against the Affordable Care Act, but Walker claimed repealing it and replacing it with Ryan's plan would not affect most people. (Spicuzza and Marley, 3/8)

There are some claims about abortion and Planned Parenthood that just won’t go away. One of them is the repeat claim about Planned Parenthood and mammograms. So of course, Schumer’s tweet caught our attention. (Lee, 3/9)

Two days after House Republicans unveiled a plan to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood, Kathy Kneer, the reproductive health organization’s top California official, was in Washington fighting for the future of her organization, which serves some 850,000 Californians each year. Because of California’s large population and geographic reach, the state has more Planned Parenthood health centers than any other state, 115, and receives more than half of the $500 million the organization gets from the federal government each year, according to the group’s leaders. (Ho, 3/8)

Maine Sen. Susan Collins is among a group of senators that wants to make sure senior citizens aren’t charged with unexpected bills after a colonoscopy. Collins, a Republican, is introducing federal legislation that is designed to protect seniors from out-of-pocket costs for preventative colonoscopies. (3/9)

House GOP lawmakers unveiled their Obamacare replacement this week. But while it's a health care plan, it's not the "Greatest Healthcare Plan." That honor goes to a proposal from Rep. Pete Sessions. The Texas Republican last week introduced health care legislation entitled the "World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017," a proposal that, among other provisions, would eliminate individual and employer health coverage mandates. (Estepa, 3/8)

For years, when President Trump pitched a new property that had his name in glittering gold letters above the door, he would throw himself into the sale: showy appearances with an entourage and a rush of boastful television interviews. But the Republican proposal to revise the Affordable Care Act is not a hotel — and Trump’s salesmanship has been understated by comparison. There is still urgency in his efforts, just markedly less Trump. And the administration is being cagey about its branding. (Costa and Weigel, 3/8)

President Donald Trump is moving to quiet conservative opposition to the House GOP Obamacare replacement, drawing on his newfound bully pulpit to pressure but also coax rebellious lawmakers. Trump on Tuesday night turned his massive Twitter following on one of the most vocal opponents of the repeal bill: conservative firebrand Sen. Rand Paul. ... Trump also told a group of 20 House GOP whips that he would use all the powers in his Oval Office arsenal to get the GOP alternative over the finish line, and he vowed to summon to the White House opponents of the bill. (Bade and Cheney, 3/8)

Leaders of conservative groups that oppose the House Republicans’ health care bill met with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday night, part of a high-profile effort to quiet anger from the right. In the process, the conservatives heard the president and his team express some openness to tweaks to the bill that go further than House or Senate leaders might accept. Trump and his team did not outright reject changes on at least three components of the American Health Care Act, said some of the meeting’s attendees, speaking on the condition of anonymity. One idea was accelerating the timetable for key changes to Medicaid under the House GOP plan from 2020 to 2018. (Weigel and Sullivan, 3/8)

As conservatives revolt over Republican health care legislation, President Trump faces a crucial first test of his presidency: Can he translate his bully pulpit and popularity with conservative voters into a legislative win? For Trump, it is a new arena five rocky weeks into his presidency. Thus far the accomplishments he has notched have been carried out via executive authority or appointments ratified by the Senate, often overshadowed by self-inflicted distraction. (Werner and Thomas, 3/8)

In a private Oval Office meeting with conservative activists Wednesday, President Donald Trump sold Paul Ryan's health care bill as strong and necessary. But minutes later, his top aides offered some willingness to consider changing some of the core provisions, even as Trump himself suggested a fallback position — that they could try again in two years, and Obamacare will fail on its own, leaving Democrats to take the blame. In other words, Trump was ready to deal. (Dawsey and Bade, 3/8)

Some of the most conservative members of the House are at a crossroads over the plan from GOP leadership and the White House to replace the Affordable Care Act. Those lawmakers say their choice is between supporting a bill that goes against many of their principles, or falling in line behind President Trump — who won overwhelming support in their district. (Taylor, 3/8)

House Republicans battling over their party’s proposed legislation to replace Obamacare say they have been told President Donald Trump is “agnostic” on the details of the plan, suggesting the current draft could face alterations. The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, a former House member, delivered the message Tuesday that Trump is open to alterations in a meeting with leaders of the Republican Study Committee, a group of 170 House conservatives, according to two House members and an aide in the room. (House, 3/8)

He built his career in large part by plastering his name on skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, books, wines and steaks, but there appears to be one place President Donald Trump does not want his favorite five-letter word — the Republican health care bill. (Nussbaum and Haberkorn, 3/8)

Two Democratic congressmen say President Trump told them privately Wednesday that he would support their bill to allow the government to negotiate on behalf of Medicare when buying prescription drugs. After a nearly hour-long meeting with Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Reps. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) said they had procured the president's support for their measure. (Johnson, 3/8)

A bill to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices may be put forward in Congress within two or three weeks, legislators said after a closed-door meeting with President Trump. The outcome of the meeting between Trump and Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) solidifies a stated aim for both politicians: Lower drug prices by letting Medicare negotiate with drug makers. (Sheridan, 3/8)

For years, congressional Democrats have tried to pass legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for millions of beneficiaries. Now, they believe they have a not-so-secret weapon: President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, U.S. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) met privately for about an hour with Trump and newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to discuss ways to combat high drug prices. (Tribble, 3/9)

President Donald Trump told a pair of House Democrats he wants to work with them to allow the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for discounts on drugs, the Democrats said. Sitting behind his desk, with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price the only other White House official present, Mr. Trump used the meeting to talk about how the government, with its buying power, could negotiate for lower prices and a better deal for the taxpayer, the lawmakers at the meeting said. (Hughes, 3/8)

Yellow fever has broken out in the jungles outside Brazil’s most densely-populated cities, raising a frightening but still remote possibility: an epidemic that could decimate that country’s population and spread throughout the Americas, including the United States. (Healy, 3/8)

Top infectious disease experts are warning about a rapidly spreading outbreak of deadly yellow fever in Brazil that could hit parts of the United States. The danger would be most acute if the virus starts spreading by the same mosquito that transmits Zika. (Sun, 3/8)

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday again warned patients and doctors to avoid a risky, experimental procedure promoted as a treatment for several nervous system disorders, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. The procedure involves inflating a tiny balloon in narrowed veins, usually in the neck, to widen them and improve blood flow. (Johnson, 3/8)

Memphis may be the heaviest city in the country, but it isn’t much of an outlier. From the trimmest state, Colorado, to the most obese, Mississippi, the entire nation has been on a perilous—and costly—upward track when it comes to extreme weight gain. Severe obesity (a BMI of 40 or more)—the kind most harmful to individual well-being and expensive to society—is rising at an alarming rate and may affect 11 percent of U.S. adults by 2030. (Baker, 3/8)

A contract dispute means that about 70,000 people with Blue Cross health insurance could lose in-network access starting this summer to Children’s Minnesota, the state’s largest pediatric hospital system. Children’s announced Wednesday that it has terminated its contract with Eagan-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, which is one of the state’s largest health insurers, and is mailing letters to patients that will notify them about the potential change. (Snowbeck, 3/8)

Wall Street’s three major debt rating firms are warning Partners HealthCare to stem financial losses or risk a downgrade of its credit rating. Analysts at Fitch Ratings, S&P Global Ratings, and Moody’s Investors Service revised their credit outlook for Partners from stable to negative, which is more bearish than their view on the nonprofit hospital industry as a whole. Fitch also downgraded Partners’ credit rating by one notch, a troubling sign for the state’s largest health network and largest private employer, which has historically posted steady profits. (Dayal McCluskey, 3/9)

Mercy Community Healthcare has expanded and renovated its offices in Franklin’s Williamson Square. The health care provider has added a new patient and family support center and renovated its counseling center and health center. It took about a year to complete the $685,000 project. “First and foremost our patients are uninsured or underinsured,” said CEO Cindy Siler. About 70 percent of Mercy’s patients are uninsured or have TennCare. (Balakit, 3/8)

One of the east metro’s key hospital systems, HealthEast, has agreed to merge with competitor Fairview Health Services. If the merger goes through as planned, it would likely create the largest health system in the Twin Cities with hospitals and clinics throughout the metro. It will also connect HealthEast patients with the University of Minnesota’s teaching hospital. HealthEast operates Bethesda Hospital, St. John’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Woodwinds Health Campus, as well as 14 primary care clinics. It has around 7,200 employees and took in 8.3 percent of Twin Cities hospital revenues, according to health industry analyst Allan Baumgarten. (Montgomery, 3/8)

In a sign of the challenge ahead for supporters of a new Republican health care plan, two GOP lawmakers from Colorado — U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and U.S. Rep. Ken Buck — said Wednesday that they have concerns about the package unveiled this week. Neither would say whether they would support the proposal as written, though both legislators said they are skeptical — for different reasons — of how it would begin in 2020 to phase out an expansion of Medicaid created under the Affordable Care Act. (Ingold, Matthews and Frank, 3/8)

Fairview Health Services and HealthEast Care System announced merger plans Wednesday morning to form the Twin Cities’ largest network of hospitals and clinics, a move that would combine a strong primary care presence in the East Metro with the medical sophistication of the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. Leaders of the two health systems said merging would create efficiencies and save money — a particular concern for HealthEast given recent financial losses — and expand the referral base of clinics sending patients with complex needs to the university hospital. (Olson, 3/8)

Leading Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly want to increase funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state if Congress cuts federal funds for the reproductive health-care services the organization provides. Lawmakers have sponsored a bill that would allocate $2.7 million to help pay for health-care services that officials say nearly 25,000 women in Maryland could lose under a proposal introduced in Congress this week. (Wiggins, 3/8)

As Congress and the Trump administration move toward a possible cutoff of federal money for Planned Parenthood, Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly say the state should cover any funding loss. Leading Democratic lawmakers are backing legislation that would require the governor to budget about $2.7 million to pay for non-abortion services offered by Planned Parenthood if federal officials cut funding. Dozens of women lawmakers turned out for the announcement at an Annapolis news conference — most dressed in red to mark International Women's Day. They were joined by male colleagues, many in red shirts and ties. (Dresser, 3/8)

Conservatives have bristled against Governor Charlie Baker’s pledge to replace Planned Parenthood funding with state dollars if Washington pulls its support for the program. But even the most disappointed do not expect Baker to face a primary challenge from the right next year. (O'Sullivan, 3/8)

Exposing a person to HIV is treated more seriously under California law than infecting someone with any other communicable disease, a policy some lawmakers say is a relic of the decades-old AIDS scare that unfairly punishes HIV-positive people based on outdated science. Several lawmakers are promoting a bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would make it a misdemeanor instead of a felony to intentionally expose someone to HIV, the virus that causes the immune system-weakening disease AIDS. The change would treat HIV like other communicable diseases under California law. (Bollag, 3/8)

Four years after Gov. Terry Branstad called on Iowa's 150 legislators to put some "skin in the game" by contributing to the state's healthcare costs, only eight have made any reimbursements for their government-provided health insurance, a Des Moines Register investigation has found. In 2012, Branstad urged lawmakers to cover 20 percent of their premium expenses, urging them to pay at the same rate as most non-union state employees. But few legislators have heeded Branstad’s call, and what few payments they have made largely have been inconsistent, according to data the Register obtained through Iowa’s public records law. (Clayworth, 3/8)

Senate Bill 96 and House Bill 119 would require state officials to perform to quarterly eligibility checks against several state and federal databases and expand the data used in those checks. Applicants would also be asked personal and financial history questions to verify their identity. The goal is to identify people who become ineligible through a pay raise or other life change and don't immediately report it, said Sen. Bill Coley, a Southwest Ohio Republican sponsoring the Senate bill. (Borchardt, 3/8)

State Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, has a message for lawmakers pushing to loosen restrictions on guns in Florida... In the wake of mass shootings at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, and the Ft. Lauderdale airport, Garcia has become even more concerned about widespread gun access, particularly among people in a mental health or substance abuse crisis who might be more likely to commit a violent crime. (Auslen and Clark, 3/8)

In Texas, as in the rest of the nation, juries can still sentence mentally ill offenders to death. In a state with one of the busiest death rows in the country, one lawmaker has filed a bill to change that. State Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, has filed long-shot House Bill 3080, which would prevent offenders proven to have had a severe mental illness at the time of their crime from being sentenced to death in a capital murder case. (McCullough, 3/8)

King County judge ruled this week that the University of Washington broke the state’s public-records law when it redacted key details from medical-malpractice settlement agreements provided to The Seattle Times in response to two public-records requests made by the newspaper in 2015. Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen ruled Monday the UW “improperly” redacted and withheld “nonexempt information” — including names of physicians and claimants, dates and other key details — from hundreds of pages of settlement agreements drafted by the UW Medical Center and other university-affiliated health-care organizations to resolve malpractice and negligence claims between 2010 and mid-2015. (3/8)

An adult stem cell center established by the Kansas Legislature in 2013 is almost ready for its first clinical trial.Buddhadeb Dawn, executive director of the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, told legislators Tuesday that the trial will focus on treating graft-versus-host disease and will begin after final approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Marso, 3/8)

As Philadelphia continues to reel from last year's 910 fatal drug overdoses, local officials, medical professionals, and philanthropic organizations are considering a controversial idea: Opening special facilities where heroin users can inject drugs safely...On Wednesday, the idea of “safer injection sites” was proposed during a meeting of the Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic, which Mammen and at least 50 others attended. (Wood, 3/8)

A “system error” at the state Medicaid department could leave Colorado taxpayers on the hook to repay the federal government as much as $43 million, an unexpected expense that state officials are scrambling to reconcile. The department’s computer system “erroneously categorized” some services as eligible for more federal funds than they were, according to a memo sent Wednesday to lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee from a committee staffer. (Eason and Brown, 3/8)

Buoy Health has launched a digital symptom-checker designed to simulate a conversation with a real doctor, a bid to augment the range of medical websites people increasingly log on to when they’re not feeling well. Developed at the Harvard Innovation Laboratory and aided by artificial intelligence , the technology draws on a pool of about 30,000 potential questions that aim to pinpoint diseases, ranging from the common cold to more serious diagnoses. (Grebbin, 3/8)

Edina soon could become the first Minnesota city to require tobacco buyers to be 21 rather than 18... The cause is being spearheaded by Dr. Caleb Schultz of the city’s Community Health Commission, who recommended raising the buying age during a presentation to the council Tuesday. (Otarola, 3/8)

This week, House Republicans are taking significant steps to repeal and replace Obamacare. Known as the American Health Care Act, our fiscally responsible legislation will accomplish two urgent priorities: Providing Americans with immediate relief from the failing law. Laying a strong foundation for a 21st century health care system based on what patients and families need, not what Washington dictates. (Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), 3/8)

Progressives are lining up to assail the GOP’s health-care bill, though many on the political right seem to be even more unhappy. A little internal division is inevitable in any reform campaign worth fighting for, but the alternative strategies these conservative critics are suggesting are less than persuasive. To repeal and replace ObamaCare, Republicans must manage a mix of policy, political and procedural variables that are more complicated than usual. Compromises are necessary to earn 218 votes in the House and then a simple majority among the 52-member Senate GOP conference under the budget reconciliation process, which can bypass the filibuster but limits the scope of what the bill can contain. Call it the art of the deal. (3/8)

After their bill collapses under the weight of opposition from the left and right, the party should re-draft a measure removing the worst features of Obamacare while enhancing the rest. That means the GOP must drop the weird, tangential parts of its new bill: the clause renewing the tax break for insurance company CEOs earning more than $500,000, for example. Allowing states to remove lottery winners from Medicaid may be a worthy goal, but it’s hardly a major priority. (3/8)

With the release of the House leadership’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Republicans suddenly find themselves having to answer a lot of questions about health care, which they’re not exactly comfortable doing. In the process, they’re revealing something important: not so much the details of their plan, but the values that underlie it. Those values, and the clash between the different ones different players in this issue hold, will determine whether compromises can be reached or whether the whole thing goes down in flames. (Paul Waldman, 3/8)

The House GOP’s bill to reform health care is hardly a surprise: Its key elements were part of the “Better Way” agenda championed last year by Speaker Paul Ryan. Republican lawmakers discussed the principles in several special conference meetings. The legislation was then written from the bottom up by the appropriate committees instead of being imposed from the top down. (Karl Rove, 3/8)

The rapid pace of action, with committee markup less than two days after GOP leaders first allowed the public to see the bill, comes amid growing discontent over the legislation. Democrats uniformly oppose Affordable Care Act repeal and the proposed GOP “replacement.” But Republican leaders face bigger problems in the forms of a conservative revolt against their plan, as well as public opposition from the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, AARP and other organizations. (Jonathan Cohn and Jeffrey Young, 3/8)

"Obamacare is collapsing, and we must act decisively to protect all Americans," President Donald Trump has said. We may be about to conduct an involuntary experiment testing whether that's true. Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act appears to have thus far attracted insufficient support from the more conservative wing of the Republican party. The conservative wing likely lacks the support among Democrats or more moderate Republicans to actually vote to repeal Obamacare when doing so would have more than symbolic importance. The result may be "Stalemate+," in which there are mild administrative reforms of the ACA, but in which nothing fundamental occurs. If so, we'll see if supporters of the ACA are right that the bill is just suffering from a "head cold" or whether, as President Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and others believe, it has Stage 4 cancer. (Seth Chandler, 3/9)

That’s not an ironic headline. Leading House Republicans have included a number of transformative and consequential reforms in their American Health Care Act, the full text of which was published Monday evening. But those reforms are overshadowed by the bill’s stubborn desire to make health insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans, and trap millions more in poverty. Can such a bill garner the near-universal Republican support it will need to pass Congress? (Avik Roy, 3/7)

Not everyone hates Paul Ryan’s new health-care bill. Sure, conservative policy wonks, pretty much across the board, hate it. Right-wing agitators like Heritage Action hate it. Donor tax-cut advocates like the Club for Growth hate it. And conservative purists -- that courageous breed that eschews tainted compromise with dull reality -- hate it. Naturally, liberals hate it, as do people with serious health problems who depend on reliable health insurance. Yet a Democratic leadership aide was far less unkind. Asked purely about the bill’s political merits, he said Democrats, policy consequences aside, would be delighted to see Republican House members casting votes in favor of it, which he likened to walking a plank. (Francis Wilkinson, 3/8)

Democrats denouncing the new House GOP health-care bill should actually be dancing in the streets. Perhaps, in the privacy of their own homes, the savvier ones are popping the champagne corks. The true meaning of the proposed legislation is that, after eight years of all-out political and ideological struggle against Obamacare, Republicans have surrendered — pretty much on all fronts. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) should have written the bill on a large white tablecloth and run it up the nearest flagpole. (Charles Lane, 3/8)

Insurers do get a huge tax cut in the GOP plan, in the range of $145 billion over a decade. The bill would make more of their executive compensation deductible. They will be able to charge older people more for insurance, and offer less-expensive plans that may bring younger Americans into insurance markets. In the future they may be able to offer leaner and more flexible plans than they can under the Affordable Care Act. Insurers that provide employer insurance or administer Medicare plans may benefit, to some extent. (Max Nisen, 3/8)

Donald Trump was elected president on this basic idea: Everyone currently in the government is dumb and makes bad deals. ... Now it was time to turn things over to someone who had actually sat across a boardroom table and cut deals in the real world. Enter the new health-care bill that aims to remove several major tenets of the Affordable Care Act and replace them with more conservative proposals. (Chris Cillizza, 3/8)

What’s the rush on repealing Obamacare? It’s true President Trump did promise speediness during the campaign. (“You’re going to end up with great health care for a fraction of the price and that’s gonna take place immediately after we go in. O.K.? Immediately. Fast. Quick.”) But that was before he discovered that health care was … “complicated.” This sort of thinking will send us back to discussions about how our president has no permanent convictions on any subject except the inferiority of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a reality show host. Let’s move on. We have a national disaster to watch unrolling. (Gail Collins, 3/9)

We are waiting for official details that outline coverage impacts, but our initial analysis of the House plan (officially called the American Health Care Act) shows that recent coverage gains are at risk of erosion. Big changes to Medicaid will jeopardize coverage for more than 700,000 newly insured Pennsylvanians -- most of them in working families with very low incomes -- who have been covered through the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid. Pennsylvanians who buy their insurance on the Health Insurance Marketplace also will be at risk. The tax credits put forth in the American Health Care Act are not sufficient to make insurance affordable for low-income Americans not covered through their jobs. (Andy Carter, 3/8)

[N]ew legislation takes a long time to get to the President’s desk. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has the unenviable task of enforcing a law they know harms Americans. They are doing the best they can to offer relief through administrative rule-making. (John Graham, 3/8)

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or eliminating its provisions expanding Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will jeopardize people with disabilities, including autistic children and adults, according to an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). ... This shift to block grants is emphatically a part of the current, if already beleaguered, proposed replacement for ACA, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The tax cut that it promises for the rich, amounting to almost $300 billion according to Slate's Jordan Wiessman, will find its funding in Medicaid cuts, carved out by way of these block grants starting in 2020. (Emily Willingham, 3/9)

House Speaker Paul Ryan released the plan Monday, and Trump enthusiastically endorsed it Tuesday — even though it covers fewer Americans, increases costs for low-income and senior citizens, increases the deficit, defunds Planned Parenthood and does zero to reduce overall health care costs. Zero. (3/8)

Now, with congressional Republicans and President Trump trying to repeal and replace Obamacare, some Sacramento Democrats think they see an opening to finally adopt a California version of single-payer. Under single-payer, healthcare costs are paid for by the government, rather than by private insurance. The healthcare itself is still delivered by private physicians. Some version that would allow people to buy supplemental private insurance — call it “Medicare-for-all” — presumably could fit into the system these Democrats envision. We really don’t know because they haven’t actually proposed anything. They’re promising details in two weeks. (Ike Skelton, 3/9)

The Republican Party’s proposed replacement for Obamacare might be tolerable if the lives of real people were not on the line. But at least here in Illinois, we can assure Congress, the harm would be real and great. Hundreds of thousands of people likely would be left without health insurance, and our state’s economy, already so shaky, would take another hit. Especially hurt in Illinois could be some 3.2 million people who receive health insurance through the Medicaid program. (3/8)

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has come out against the Republican legislation meant to repeal and replace Obamacare. ... The group also issued a statement reading in part that the bill’s “cuts could impact people of all ages and put at risk the health and safety of 17.4 million children and adults with disabilities and seniors by eliminating much-needed services that allow individuals to live independently in their homes and communities.” (EJ Montini, 3/8)

In the space of 10 days in April, Arkansas plans to execute eight men — nearly a quarter of its entire death-row population, and more than a third as many people as were put to death in America in 2016. It would be the fastest spate of executions in any state in more than 40 years. All of the men have sat on Arkansas’s death row for decades. Why the sudden rush to kill them now? The answer is as mundane as it is absurd: The state’s batch of a lethal-injection drug is about to expire. (3/9)

On March 17 at noon, about 18,000 medical students will open envelopes telling them where they will spend the next several years of their lives. It’s residency Match Day... There’s too much at stake: eight years of college and medical school, hundreds of thousands of dollars in education costs, and significant debt. We want to go where we feel our careers will take off. But there’s a personal aspect, too. For me, the difference between two residencies is suddenly living 3,000 miles from my partner. For some medical students, the difference is uprooting spouses and children or keeping them in their jobs and schools. And for others, it’s a calculated risk on cost of living and paying back those five- and six-figure loans. (Kunal Sindhu, 3/8)

Cancer drugs are all too often hailed as miracles, breakthroughs, game-changers, or even cures, even when they are no such thing. We recently reported in JAMA Oncology that these words were used 50 percent of the time to describe drugs not approved by the FDA, and 14 percent of the time to describe drugs that had only worked in mice. The leap from helping a mouse to saving a human is uncertain, long, and overwhelmingly unsuccessful. Even when we do have drugs that work, hype may mislead us about how well they work and how many people they will benefit. (Nathan Gay and Vinay Prasad, 3/8)

To end this pandemic, women are advancing research on the front lines as scientists in laboratories and clinics and as leaders of large, international clinical trial efforts. Women are also making a difference in clinics around the world as participants in clinical trials, volunteering to help us better understand and fight the disease, one person at a time. Women are setting examples, breaking down barriers, and demonstrating the value that inclusivity brings in scientific research. Because of their efforts, more trials will ensure that the unique biology of women is taken into account as new HIV treatment and prevention tools are developed, tested, and ultimately used by both sexes. (Linda-Gail Bekker and Anthony S. Fauci, 3/8)

Last month, White House press secretary Sean Spicer sent shock waves through the nascent — but growing — marijuana industry when he indicated that the Trump administration intends to pursue “greater enforcement” regarding non-medical marijuana. The comments drew quick rebuke from elected officials in several states that have begun experimenting with pot legalization. Certainly, we shouldn’t lock people up for marijuana use or low-level offenses, or revert to a “Reefer Madness”-style war on drugs. But we should also recognize legalization for what it is: the large-scale commercialization and marketing of an addictive — and therefore highly profitable — substance. (Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet, 3/8)

As representatives of the service provider, philanthropic, and policy maker communities working to address homelessness from different angles, we are acutely aware of the human toll that the problem exacts and of its impact on the public purse. We also know that complex problems like homelessness require creative policy solutions that cut across sectors. Fortunately, Massachusetts has had an innovative program in place for more than a decade that specifically targets the high-need, high-utilizing segment of the homeless population consisting of those experiencing chronic homelessness. (Lyndia Downie, Audrey Shelto and Marylou Sudders, 3/9)

For nearly 80 years, the Finnish government has provided new parents with baby boxes -- starter kits for parenthood with clothing, toys, diapers and even a bed — conditional on getting prenatal care. The cardboard box features a firm mattress and serves as a safe place to sleep. Last month, New Jersey became the first state in the United States to launch a statewide baby box program. Massachusetts should launch its own version of baby boxes and give newborns a more equal start in life. (Kate Mitchell, 3/8)