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Ted Cruz did what he had to do. Donald Trump fell well short of the shock-and-awe moment he hoped would set up a blitz through the rest of the country. Marco Rubio bought himself a seat at the big table. And Hillary Clinton flirted all night with disaster. (Seib, 2/1)

The close race illustrated just how turbulent the Republican race may be, with the vote fragmenting between Mr. Cruz’s evangelicals and Tea Party adherents, Mr. Trump’s blue-collar political newcomers and Mr. Rubio’s mix of conservatives and pragmatic Republicans hungry for victory. (Martin, 2/1)

Riding a late wave of momentum, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida finished a surprisingly strong third, just behind Trump, which positions him as the leading establishment choice when the campaign moves to friendlier terrain in New Hampshire. (Rucker and Johnson, 2/1)

Hillary Clinton narrowly defeated Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses, according to results announced by the state Democratic Party early Tuesday morning — a dramatic finish to a race so close that the Associated Press declined to call it even after all precincts except one had reported results. Clinton was awarded 699.57 state delegate equivalents, versus 695.49 for Sanders, Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire said in a statement. The results were the closest in state Democratic caucus history, and 171,109 Democratic voters turned out to caucus. (Gass, 2/1)

The former secretary of state, whose once formidable lead over [Vermont Sen. Bernie] Sanders evaporated over months of campaigning, promised to "finish the job of universal health care coverage for every man, woman and child." (Krieg, 2/2)

Even if Clinton ends up on top — as her campaign believes — the close contest in Iowa confirms that Sanders’s anti-establishment message has real muscle and appeal. (Gearan and Wagner, 2/2)

Paul Ryan is set to attend his first formal meeting as House speaker with President Barack Obama on Tuesday morning. A few hours later, Ryan’s House will seek to override Obama’s veto of a bill gutting much of the president’s signature health-insurance law. The timing may not bode well for their prospects of finding common ground, but it will be a chance for both men to gauge what, if anything, can be accomplished before the election stifles the prospects of any major legislation. (House, 2/2)

President Barack Obama and Paul Ryan will meet one-one-one for the first time since the Wisconsin lawmaker became speaker of the House last year. ... “This is something that they discussed when the president called Speaker Ryan to thank him for his work passing an omnibus budget proposal at the end of last year,” [White House Press Secretary Josh] Earnest said. (Collins, 2/1)

In January, more than 350,000 lower income New Yorkers began paying $20 a month or less for comprehensive health insurance with no deductibles and low copayments, under a federal health law program. Minnesota has similar coverage in place through the same program, with more than 125,000 enrollees. The two states are using a provision of the health law to create a “basic health program.” And even though the coverage is significantly more affordable than the alternative — subsidized marketplace plans — health policy experts say it’s unlikely other states will follow suit. (Andrews, 2/2)

MNsure announced Monday it had signed up more than 85,000 consumers into private health care plans in the latest round of open enrollment, eclipsing a critical registration goal by luring a large share of new customers to buy insurance through the exchange. Chief executive Allison O’Toole credited improvements to MNsure’s website and call center since the exchange’s disastrous launch in 2013 for surpassing the goal of signing up 83,000 plans. (Potter, 2/1)

People who buy coverage through Ohio's health-insurance marketplace typically cannot sign up after the open-enrollment period ends. There are some circumstances that can trigger a special enrollment period — the loss of a job, a move, the birth of a child — but an eleventh-hour change in a plan's provider network isn't one of them. (Sutherly, 2/2)

Aetna Inc. became the latest health insurer to report losses on 2015 Affordable Care Act business, a dark spot as the company unveiled sharply higher profit for the fourth quarter. Though individual health plans are a small share of Aetna’s overall revenue and enrollment, which totaled 23.5 million at the end of 2015, they are drawing outsized attention amid questions about the future of the marketplaces that are at the heart of the federal health law. (Wilde Mathews and Steele, 2/1)

U.S. health insurance giant Aetna (AET) beat Wall Street forecasts Monday as the company reported higher fourth-quarter profits and reaffirmed plans to complete its acquisition of smaller rival Humana this year. The Hartford, Conn.-based company credited the results in part to growth in membership and premiums as Aetna boosted its government business that sells Medicare and Medicaid health plans to U.S. consumers. (McCoy, 2/1)

Aetna has joined other major health insurers in sounding a warning about the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges. The nation’s third-largest insurer said Monday that it has been struggling with customers who sign up for coverage outside the ACA’s annual enrollment window and then use a lot of care. This dumps claims on the insurer without providing enough premium revenue to counter those costs. (Murphy, 2/1)

Aetna wrapped up 2015 with a 38-percent surge in fourth quarter earnings but chased its better-than-expected performance with 2016 guidance that misses Wall Street forecasts. The nation's third largest health insurer said Monday it expects adjusted earnings of at least $7.75 per share in the new year. Analysts had been looking for per-share earnings $8.05, according to a poll by the data firm FactSet. Aetna recorded adjusted earnings of $7.71 per share in 2015. The insurer said its initial, 2016 guidance factors in an expected first-quarter drop in commercial health insurance enrollment and an anticipated modest rise in medical cost trends, among other factors. (2/1)

The head of the third-biggest U.S. health insurer said he has “serious concerns” about whether or not Obamacare’s new markets are sustainable, echoing criticism from other top for-profit insurers. “We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges,” Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said on a call Monday while discussing the company’s fourth-quarter results. “We remain concerned about the overall stability of the risk pool.” (Tracer, 2/1)

Medical-device companies, under pressure from hospitals and health insurers to keep expenses down, are capitalizing on strong cash flows and the stumbling stock market to beef up cost-controlling technologies that may be critical to maintaining growth. Three of the biggest makers of medical technology, Medtronic Plc, Abbott Laboratories and Stryker Corp., announced acquisitions Monday that target improved health-care efficiency and quality. Each of the deals bolsters the acquirers’ offerings in ways that address the needs of doctors and hospitals to control spending while reducing errors and waste. (Cortez and Lauerman, 2/1)

Index Ventures, best known for funding startups like Skype and the creator of the Candy Crush Saga online game, is spinning off its biotechnology investments into a new venture-capital firm. The separation highlights the success of Index’s approach to the biotechnology industry: investing in early-stage companies focused on one product. That has cut in half the time needed to reach a return on the investment, as it quickly becomes apparent whether the product will succeed or fail. (Hallam, 2/2)

Index Ventures, an early investor in technology hits like Skype and Dropbox, is spinning off its biotech portfolio into a new $1 billion (695 million pounds) business, with backing from drug giants GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson. The new Medicxi Ventures business will be led by the existing life sciences team from Index Ventures and includes all the current biotech portfolio companies. Medicxi said on Tuesday it had raised 210 million euros ($229 million) for a new fund focused on early-stage life sciences investments in Europe, with GSK and J&J each contributing 25 percent. (2/2)

TE Connectivity Ltd., a maker of equipment used in harsh environments, agreed to buy health-care device company Creganna Medical from buyout firm Permira Advisers for $895 million in cash. Creganna, based in Ireland, designs and makes gear for medical-device manufacturers. The company had sales of about $250 million last year, TE Connectivity said. (Serafino, 2/1)

Gilead Sciences Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Martin, under whom the company developed one of the fastest-selling drugs of all time, will step down and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer John Milligan. Martin, 64, will remain as executive chairman. He has served as CEO since 1996, a year when the company’s total market valuation, about $1 billion, was less than the company’s two blockbuster hepatitis C treatments now bring in in a single month. (Armstrong, 1/30)

The Obama administration announced on Monday that it hoped to spend $1 billion to fund a cancer “moonshot” in search of a cure. But in the costly world of biological research, such a sum may be better described as a cancer slingshot, researchers said. “The good news is that the budget is no longer being cut,” said Dr. Peter Adamson, the chairman of the Children’s Oncology Group, which conducts national clinical trials. “But we’re not going to the moon on $1 billion.” (Harris, 2/1)

President Obama plans to ask Congress for $755 million in cancer-research funding as part of his 2017 budget, according to the White House. That would bring the funding total to nearly $1 billion over the next two years to accelerate what the president called a "moonshot" to try to eliminate cancer. Congress has already approved $195 million in research funding in 2016. (Wagner, 2/1)

The White House will ask Congress for $1 billion to carry out Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s “moonshot” cancer initiative when it submits its fiscal 2017 budget request next week, according to senior administration officials. President Barack Obama is expected to propose $755 million in mandatory funding for new cancer-related research activities at the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as unspecified smaller increases for the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments. Officials said the cumulative investments will help support research on cancer vaccines, early detection, immunotherapy, genomic analysis and enhanced data-sharing. (Zanona, 2/1)

Pennsylvania-based Independence Blue Cross’ announcement that it will cover a complex type of genetic testing for some cancer patients thrusts the insurer into an ongoing debate about how to handle an increasing array of these expensive tests. Independence — with its approximately 3 million members — became the largest insurer to cover whole genome sequencing for select cancer patients. (Appleby, 2/2)

While operating on Gary Avila’s arm last year, a surgeon at Stanford Hospital accidentally nicked a nerve, causing an injury that affected the use of his hand. Mr. Avila’s injury was resolved through a Stanford program known as Pearl, short for Process for Early Assessment, Resolution and Learning. In addition to an apology, an explanation of what had gone wrong, and a waiver of his medical bill, Mr. Avila received a monetary settlement that both sides agreed to keep confidential to compensate for his pain and suffering. Stanford’s Pearl program is serving as a model for more so-called communication and resolution programs that hospitals are adopting to interact with patients when things go wrong and avoid costly litigation. (Landro, 2/1)

A health care startup made a wild pitch to Cara Waller, CEO of the Newport Orthopedic Institute in Newport Beach. The company said it could get patients more engaged by "automating" physician empathy. It “almost made me nauseous,” she said. How can you automate something as deeply personal as empathy? But Waller needed help. Her physicians, who perform as many as 500 surgeries a year, manage large numbers of patients at various stages of treatment and recovery. They needed a better way to communicate with patients and track their progress. (Feder Ostrov, 2/2)

Hospitals and doctors’ offices nationwide might have avoided nearly 2,000 patient deaths — and $1.7 billion in malpractice costs — if medical staff and patients communicated better, a report released Monday has found. (Bailey, 2/1)

Like so many in his profession, Dr. Jason A. Tracy used a pager to send and receive urgent messages every day. It was by his side for nearly 20 years, ever-present on his belt, vibrating with purposeful vigor whenever Tracy was needed by a patient or colleague. That was until a couple months ago, when, for the first time in his medical career, Tracy took off his pager and never put it back on. He turned instead to a secure application that allowed him to text colleagues on a sleek and decidedly 21st-century device, his iPhone. (Dayal McCluskey, 2/2)

Hospital operators are bracing for the possibility of more reductions to their Medicare and Medicaid fees in the coming budget cycle after absorbing billions of dollars in cuts since 2010. The American Hospital Association appealed to President Barack Obama in a Jan. 27 letter “to protect access to health care services for seniors and the disabled” by excluding proposed Medicare reductions from his fiscal 2017 budget plan due to be released Feb. 9. (Attias, 2/1)

The World Health Organization declared the Zika virus and its suspected link to birth defects an international public health emergency on Monday, a rare move that signals the seriousness of the outbreak and gives countries new tools to fight it. ... At a news conference in Geneva, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O, acknowledged that the understanding of the connection between the Zika virus and microcephaly was hazy, and said that uncertainty placed “a heavy burden” on pregnant women and their families throughout the Americas. She said that the emergency designation would allow the health agency to coordinate the many efforts to get desperately needed answers. (Tavernise and McNeil Jr., 2/1)

The emergency designation, recommended by a committee of independent experts following criticism of a hesitant response to Zika so far, should help fast-track international action and research priorities. The move lends official urgency to research funding and other steps to stem the spread of the virus. (2/1)

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said at a media briefing Monday that the primary reason for the designation was the "strongly suspected" causal relationship between Zika and the rare congenital condition called microcephaly. Even before that association is scientifically confirmed or disproved, members of an 18-member advisory panel said the seriousness of the cases being reported required action. Chan concurred, saying the consequences of waiting were too great. (Eunjung Cha, Sun and Dennis, 2/1)

The United Nations public health agency, acting on the recommendations of an emergency committee, called for more surveillance, research, and efforts to control the virus’s spread. It also pushed for the development of more readily available tests to diagnose the virus—none are commercially available now—as well as drugs and vaccines. (McKay, 2/1)

In Brazil and French Polynesia, outbreaks of microcephaly in newborns last fall caused concern among health workers, who also witnessed a rise in Zika cases. Babies with microcephaly have abnormally small heads associated with incomplete brain development. There also is a suspected connection between the Zika virus and the paralyzing neurological condition known as Guillain-Barre syndrome. (Epatko, 2/1)

Since the World Health Organization started raising alarms about the mosquito-borne Zika virus spreading throughout the Americas, deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies have been racing to find a vaccine. But a seven-person biotech company based in Rockville, Md., is trying something different. After a 21-day sprint, GenArraytion claims to have come up with a molecular test that can spot the virus in mosquitoes before it infects humans. The goal is to give health agencies a better way to map the virus. (Gregg, 2/1)

Aprillia Jeffries is a model success story for her company's efforts at improving the health of its staff. Jeffries, who works at Aetna, has lost 50 pounds and dropped eight dress sizes in the last two and a half years through a program at Aetna run by Newtopia, a company that provides wellness services. She has access to one-on-one coaching and a personalized diet and exercise regimen, but Jeffries, 46, credits her stellar results to a DNA test offered as part of the program. (Greenfield, 2/1)

The updated childhood immunization schedule, released today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, includes a couple tweaks to vaccine recommendations for older children and teens. One officially moves the recommendation for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine a few years earlier for children with a history of sexual abuse and officially recommends the HPV-9 vaccine over other HPV vaccines. Another offers all older teens the option of a meningitis vaccine previously recommended only for high-risk children. (Haelle, 2/1)

Julia Willhite felt on edge every time she went to the grocery store to buy formula for her baby, Gretchen. She was afraid of being judged. “I had more than one friend who was in the formula aisle at the store getting formula for their baby when some busybody came up and said, ‘You know, you really shouldn’t be giving them formula. You should be breastfeeding.’ Total strangers who came up to them in the store,” said Willhite, a social worker who lives in Olathe. (Gutierrez, 2/1)

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the 11 students in Carol Jussely’s “Essential College Skills” class were talking about sex. Crammed into school chairs and clustered in groups of three or four, they leaned together to confer and then shouted out answers to trivia questions like, “Fact or fiction: You can’t get pregnant from having sex in a hot tub.” Mississippi has among the highest teen-pregnancy rates in the country, and the teens most likely to get pregnant are college-age. So in 2014, the state passed a law that requires public colleges like Hinds Community College here to teach students how to avoid unplanned pregnancies. Arkansas passed a similar law last year. (Quinton, 2/1)

Babies get a lot from their mothers. But babies born by cesarean section don't pass through the birth canal and miss out on the benefits from picking up Mom's microbes on the way out. Researchers studying the human microbiome have asked: Could there be a way to fix that? If so, it might help restore the microbes a baby naturally gets that help fight off disease and foster normal development. (Stein, 2/1)

People with Type 1 diabetes, who don’t produce their own insulin, require continuous treatments with the hormone in order to get glucose from the bloodstream into the cells. When they skip or restrict their insulin, either by failing to take shots or manipulating an insulin pump, it causes sugars — and calories — to spill into the urine, causing rapid weight loss. But the consequences can be fatal. (Rabin, 2/1)

A new approach to treating early schizophrenia, which includes family counseling, results in improvements in quality of life that make it worth the added expense, researchers reported on Monday. The study, published by the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, is the first rigorous cost analysis of a federally backed treatment program that more than a dozen states have begun trying. In contrast to traditional outpatient care, which generally provides only services covered by insurance, like drugs and some psychotherapy, the new program offers other forms of support, such as help with jobs and school, as well as family counseling. (Carey, 2/1)

Thousands of Kansans seeking Medicaid benefits are being forced to wait months because of continuing problems with a new computer system and a change in the state agency responsible for handling some eligibility determinations. The application backlog began to form in July when state officials moved Medicaid eligibility processing to the long-delayed Kansas Eligibility Enforcement System, or KEES. The software switch forced employees to use dozens of time-consuming workarounds to make the system function. (Marso, 2/1)

Healthcare companies WellCare and Meridian are continuing their fights to manage a piece of Iowa’s $4.2 billion Medicaid system. WellCare was one of four companies selected to privatize Medicaid. But its contract was terminated after Administrative Law Judge Christie Scase determined it had violated rules of the bid process. (Boden, 2/1)

A company stripped of its role in managing Iowa’s $4.2 billion Medicaid for improper communications with Gov. Terry Branstad’s staff argued Monday that those talks are constitutionally protected. Iowa in December terminated WellCare's lucrative contract to work as one of the companies behind a controversial plan to privatize Iowa’s Medicaid management. “We’re not just throwing up a constitutional argument to see if it will get us more attention,” WellCare attorney Robert Highsmith Jr. said during a court hearing Monday. "These are fundamental foundational principles of First Amendment law.” (Clayworth, 2/1)

Rising health care costs linked to the expansion of Medicaid in New Mexico combined with faltering state revenues are crowding out initiatives sought by Gov. Susana Martinez. In January 2013, Martinez became only the second Republican governor to break ranks with GOP allies and expand Medicaid. Three years later — well into her second term — Medicaid looms over nearly every spending decision. ... New Mexico’s budget crunch is linked to a downturn in energy markets. It highlights the effects of Medicaid expansion as states start having to pay a portion of the costs for the newly insured, starting with 5 percent next year and increasing to 10 percent by 2020. More than a dozen states that opted to expand Medicaid have seen enrollments surge beyond projections, straining their budgets. Few states have as much of a challenge in meeting new spending obligations as New Mexico. (Lee, 2/1)

A Senate budget panel last week approved a bill that seeks to increase transparency about health-care costs, but the measure drew pointed questions from some lawmakers. The bill (SB 1496), sponsored by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, comes after Gov. Rick Scott has spent months accusing hospitals of engaging in "price gouging" --- an allegation that the hospital industry refutes. (2/1)

Ending years of stalemate on the abortion issue, Kentucky lawmakers on Monday gave final passage to legislation allowing real-time video consultations between doctors and women as an option to fulfill "informed consent" requirements before an abortion. The state's new Republican governor said he would sign the measure into law. (Schreiner, 2/1)

Planned Parenthood on Sunday released documents that show Kentucky officials, under former Gov. Steve Beshear, authorized it to begin providing abortions at its Louisville clinic. The organization released the material seeking to refute claims from Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin that the organization acted illegally. "We in no way, shape or form would contemplate offering abortion procedures in anything but a legal environment," said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, or PPINK. (Yetter, 2/1)

St. Christopher's Hospital for Children said Monday that it had stopped conducting elective heart surgeries pending an internal review. The North Philadelphia facility continues to perform emergency heart surgery, hospital spokeswoman Kate Donaghy said. The hospital did not indicate what prompted the review. (Avril and Purcell, 2/1)

Two lobbying behemoths have been quietly duking it out behind the scenes at the Virginia General Assembly over a whether drugs companies should have to open up their books. Health insurers are pushing legislation that would require pharmaceutical companies publish the cost of developing, manufacturing, and marketing the prescriptions that cost $10,000 or more for a single course of treatment. (Suderman, 2/1)

Rose Radiology Centers Inc. has agreed to pay $8.71 million to resolve claims of false billing and kickbacks revealed in two whistleblower lawsuits, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. Rose Radiology, which has several locations in the Tampa Bay area, was accused of submitting false claims to federal health care programs, and not observing a safety requirement that says physicians have to supervise the administration of contrast dye for an MRI. (2/1)

Officials say three fewer California inmates were sickened by a Legionnaires' disease outbreak last year than originally reported. The federal official who controls prison medical care reported Monday that 78 inmates became ill at San Quentin State Prison in August and September. (2/1)

A bipartisan group of Kansas legislators attempting to repeal the state’s death penalty say they’re building support among rank-and-file lawmakers but having trouble overcoming opposition from legislative leaders. The legislators sponsoring the repeal bill say the death penalty is ineffective, wasteful and unjust. Rep. Steven Becker, a Republican from Buhler and a former district court judge, said he knows firsthand that the judicial system makes mistakes. Since the early 1970s, he said, 156 people convicted of capital crimes were later found innocent and released from death row. (McLean, 1/29)

King County's regional trauma center will be offering health care in community clinics under a new 10-year agreement announced Monday. The board of the Harborview Medical Center has signed an agreement with the University of Washington and King County to take its services outside the walls of the Seattle hospital. (2/1)

Most patients don't have heart failure on an empty table, with good lighting all around and nothing to obstruct the paramedics who respond to the 911 call. "My first cardiac arrest was in the backseat of a taxi cab," said Scott Kasper, Virtua Health's assistant vice president of emergency medical services. Virtua's paramedic training program in South Jersey has long prepared students for the real world by sending them out into it. Now it's hoping to bring more real-world complexity to campus. (Lai, 2/1)

UCSF’s House Calls program started in the early 1990s as a training module for medical students and residents. Need and demand have helped the program grow to a current 300 patients and another 100 on a waiting list, says Dr. Carla Perissinotto, an attending physician in the program and Carol Hill’s personal physician. New technology has expanded the program’s capabilities including portable x-ray and ultrasound equipment. Dr. Perissinotto recently used telehealth technology to check a patient’s skin infection, and gerontology residents at UCSF who are part of the visiting staff often use the telehealth technology during a patient visit to consult with attending physicians. (Kitz, 2/1)

The investigation of an outbreak of norovirus infection at New Theatre Restaurant has expanded, with more than 390 people having reported illness. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is now looking at people who attended shows at Overland Park’s New Theatre from Jan. 15 to the present. So far, four people who became ill have laboratory specimens that confirmed norovirus. (Smith, 2/1)

Expect to say "I'm sorry" a lot if you decide to try one of the trendier ways to communicate with people who have Alzheimer's. There was a time when caregivers tried orienting people with dementia to reality. That often feels like the natural thing to do. "No, Mom, I actually did tell you that. Like, five times." But at Daylesford Crossing, an assisted-living facility in Paoli, workers are more likely to just go with it if a resident has some strange ideas. (Burling, 1/31)

The futuristic armored exoskeletons we marvel at in movies like Iron Man and the robotic "Luke Arm" of the Star Wars saga are now real inventions. And they've landed in Philadelphia. Two former Wall Street traders, Marc Morgenthaler and Christopher Meek, have created SoldierStrong, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit start-up that fills the gap between veteran amputees who want the space-age technology and the high cost of paying for it. (Arvedlund, 2/1)

California's largest organization of practicing physicians, the California Medical Association, announced Monday that it is backing a proposed 2016 ballot initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. A coalition of entrepreneurs, activists, environmentalists and state politicians are backing the initiative, led by billionaire technology investor Sean Parker. (Noon, 2/1)

California Medical Association, the influential lobbying group representing more than 40,000 members statewide, has officially thrown its support behind a proposed November ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. (Cadelago, 2/1)

California was the first state to allow medical marijuana. Now, two decades later, voters are expected to be asked whether to legalize recreational use of the drug. The legalization measure most likely to qualify for the statewide November ballot is the product of months of negotiations between groups with varying interests, from drug-law reformers, to growers and distributors, to famous financiers and politicians. Here’s a primer. (Cadelago, 2/1)

A market research company is growing pessimistic about Illinois medical marijuana, telling investors that retail sales could reach just $15.6 million in 2016 due at least in part to moves by Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration to limit the program's expansion. ArcView Market Research released its projections Monday exclusively to The Associated Press to coincide with the company's annual guide, which estimates the national cannabis market for 2016 at $6.7 billion. (Johnson, 2/1)

Orlando attorney John Morgan says this will be his last push to bring medical marijuana up for a vote if the constitutional amendment fails at the polls in November. There are now enough signatures to get it on the ballot. In 2014 it almost passed but failed, and since then, Morgan said attitudes have changed. So has his strategy. (Welch, 2/1)

Private health insurers made a Faustian bargain with Democrats in 2010: In return for supporting passage of the Affordable Care Act, the companies would be able to grow their business with subsidized customers who were required to buy insurance. How’s that working out? Except for Dr. Faustus, not great. (2/1)

If a deal struck last year to delay implementation of three new taxes associated with the Affordable Care Act turns permanent, either through legislation explicitly repealing them or repeated deals to delay them, the cost to the Treasury Department’s bottom line will be high in the relative near term, but enormous in the long term. (Rob Garver, 2/1)

Joe Biden is leading a White House “moonshot” to cure cancer by 2020, and good for him. Along the way maybe he can warn his fellow politicians to stop undermining medical advances with price controls. The latest offender is Maura Healey, who is threatening to sue Gilead Sciences for having all but cured Hepatitis C. The Democratic Attorney General of Massachusetts claims the prices of the drug maker’s medicines Sovaldi and Harvoni “may constitute an unfair trade practice in violation of Massachusetts law.” (2/1)

For the country as a whole, the Affordable Care Act has been successful at decreasing the number of uninsured Americans to a seven-year low. However, according to a recent authoritative survey, the decrease has been much lower in southeastern Pennsylvania. (Tine Hansen-Turton, 1/29)

The problem of unaffordable drugs can only be adequately addressed within a comprehensive, health care program. The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, fails to provide even a start on achieving a health care program capable of meeting the overarching goals of access, affordability and quality. According to a poll conducted by CBS News this month, only 40 percent of the U.S. public supports the Affordable Care Act and 52 percent disapprove of it. Among Republicans, nearly 80 percent disapprove, 70 percent of them strongly. In contrast, although the majority of Democrats approve of the law, only half those who favor it express strong support for it. (Daniel R. Hoffman, 1/29)

Everyone wants to pay less for prescription medicines, and Maura Healey believes she has found a way to make it happen: by suing drug companies for violating state consumer protection laws. In a controversial maneuver, the Massachusetts attorney general is threatening to file a lawsuit against Gilead Sciences if the California drug maker doesn’t lower its prices for a pair of costly hepatitis C treatments.Legal experts are calling this a long shot. Consumer advocates believe this is a brilliant tactic. And in truth, both sides have a point. (Ed Silverman, 2/2)

A good negotiator needs to be able to walk away. That is a rule that, surely, Donald Trump knows. And yet in suggesting that Medicare could find big discounts by letting the government negotiate directly over drug prices, he seems to have forgotten it. Mr. Trump has joined Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in calling for a federal government program to negotiate for Medicare’s drug prices. The current system has private insurance companies each negotiating separate deals on behalf of large groups of Medicare patients. ... The real problem is that Medicare can very rarely say “No way” to a drug company. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 2/2)

If you feel like the health-care debate has grown stale, know you're not alone. Despite the many presidential candidates vying to lead this nation, we are hearing little new on the topic. Vitriol and political discord continue to bar us from identifying solutions to control costs, fuel innovation, preserve the employer-based health-care system, and take care of workers and their families. (David N. Taylor and Jay Timmons, 2/1)

The worst aspect of the "Uberization" of our economy may not be the transformation of workers who could once earn a living wage into "independent contractors" who can barely make ends meet (though that's bad enough); it may be the spreading myth that any economic function can be shoehorned into the Uber format of service-on-demand at a rock-bottom price. A case in point is the mirage of an "Uber for healthcare." The latest and most prominent promoter of this notion is the conservative healthcare analyst Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute. In a new issue brief he poses the question directly: "Why isn’t there an Uber of health care?" he asks. "Why can’t we deploy, in health care, the same forces that are improving quality and lowering costs in virtually every other sector of the economy?" (Michael Hiltzik, 2/1)

The nation’s No. 1 drugstore has no plans to stop selling tobacco products and said its main focus is trying to help people kick the habit, Walgreens executives told shareholders at Wednesday’s annual meeting. “We do deliberate this on a regular basis,” said cxecutive chairman James Skinner. “Our main focus is to try to get people to quit smoking, and we provide a lot of opportunities in stores to do that,” he said, adding, “We also provide (products) for consumers who decide they want to smoke.” (1/29)

A move in the Arizona Legislature could be a cool hand on a baby’s fevered brow. It could be the difference between getting to the doctor in time or rushing a much sicker child to the emergency room later. (2/1)