First Edition: July 31, 2017

The New York Times: How To Repair The Health Law (It’s Tricky But Not Impossible)
Republicans have failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Now, can it be repaired? The seven-year-old law has survived Supreme Court decisions and aggressive attempts to extinguish it by Republicans in Congress and the White House. But even people who rely on its coverage agree that it still has big problems. The question for the roughly 20 million Americans who buy their own health coverage — and for millions of others who remain uninsured — is what can realistically be done to address their main concerns: high prices and lack of choice in many parts of the country. (Abelson, Goodnough and Thomas, 7/29)

The New York Times: Trump Tells G.O.P. Senators Not To Be ‘Total Quitters’ On Health Bill
President Trump on Saturday scolded Congress for looking “like fools” and urged Republican senators not to be “total quitters” as he insisted that his push to overhaul the nation’s health care law remained viable, the day after it was rejected by the Senate. To reinforce his demand, the president threatened to cut lawmakers’ own health insurance plans if Congress failed to revive the flagging seven-year effort to roll back the medical care program of former President Barack Obama. (Haberman, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump Threatens To Cancel Some Health-Care Benefits For Lawmakers
For months, Mr. Trump has threatened to stop reimbursements to insurance companies—a part of the ACA—but his administration has always paid them in the end, including amid significant uncertainty in June and at a crucial moment in GOP negotiations just a week ago in July. The next set of payments, which total millions of dollars for insurers that have lowered deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for the poorest enrollees in coverage under the law also known as Obamacare, is due in three weeks. (Radnosfky, 7/29)

Reuters: Trump Threatens To End Insurance Payments If No Healthcare Bill
In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said "if a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" (7/29)

Los Angeles Times: Stymied In Bid To Scrap Obamacare, Trump To Decide This Week Whether To Block Subsidies
A pair of prominent lawmakers urged President Trump on Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the wake of failed Republican efforts to scrap his predecessor’s signature legislative achievement. But Trump urged GOP senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week it was time to move on to other matters. (King, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP Senator Says Trump’s Health-Payment Cuts Would Hurt Poor
Sen. Susan Collins, one of three Republican senators who blocked the GOP’s health-care bill last week, on Sunday said President Donald Trump’s threatened cuts in payments to insurers would be “detrimental” to America’s poor. The secretary of health and human services, meanwhile, was noncommittal about the payments and also declined to say whether the Trump administration would enforce the portion of the Affordable Care Act that generally requires individuals to carry health insurance. (Burton, 7/30)

The New York Times: 3 Things Trump Is Already Doing To ‘Let Obamacare Implode’
After the failure early Friday of the latest Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump said that he wants to “let ObamaCare implode, then deal.” Mr. Trump has already been doing three things to undermine important provisions of the health law, and there is more he could do. (Park and Sanger-Katz, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare 101: Trump Threatens To Let Obamacare Fail. Can He?
President Trump has said he wants to “let Obamacare implode” as a way to force Democrats to negotiate a deal over replacing the Affordable Care Act. How real is that threat, and how imminent? Here are some key questions and answers. (Lauter and Levey, 7/28)

Politico: Lawsuits Could Force Feds To Pay Obamacare Insurers
A pending court decision could force the Trump administration to pump billions of dollars into Obamacare insurers, even as the president threatens to let the health care law “implode.” Health insurers have filed nearly two dozen lawsuits claiming the government owes them payments from a program meant to blunt their losses in the Obamacare marketplaces. That raises the prospect that the Trump administration will have to bankroll a program the GOP has pilloried as an insurer bailout. (Demko, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Key Issue In Health-Care Battle: Insurance Subsidies
As health insurers weigh their commitments to the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges for 2018, they point to a key issue that will affect the rates they would charge and indeed whether they will participate at all: Federal subsidies known as cost-sharing reduction payments. Those payments are likely to be a major focus as the industry pushes Congress to pass legislation aimed at stabilizing the exchanges. (Mathews, 7/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Bill’s Defeat Roils Republicans, Insurers
The abrupt collapse of Republicans’ bid to rework the U.S. health-care system opened a new chapter of uncertainty for insurers, medical providers and millions of Americans on Friday, as officials weighed divergent options for the road ahead. Insurers had been anxious about a fallback legislative plan crafted by Republicans that would strip a handful of elements from the 2010 Affordable Care Act they believed were integral—chiefly, the requirement that individuals buy coverage or pay a penalty. By Friday morning, that plan had fallen apart after a surprise defection of Republican senator John McCain. (Radnofsky, Mathews and Hackman, 7/28)

USA Today: After Big Staff Shake-Up, Trump Again Calls For New Health Care Plan
Trying to move forward after a big staff shake-up, facing issues ranging from North Korea to his own attorney general, President Trump said Sunday that Republicans should keep trying to repeal and replace Obamacare — while a top aide suggested Trump would pursue the same goal by cutting regulations. "Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace," Trump tweeted early in the day. (Jackson, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Trump Insults And Threatens GOP Senators In Long Rant After Health Bill Failure
Trump's multi-chaptered and occasionally self-contradictory rant kicked off Friday morning, shortly after three Republican senators joined every Democrat to sink the GOP's last-ditch effort to overturn Obamacare, 51 to 49. At first, Trump seemed resigned to let the Affordable Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare, take its course, convinced that the program will fail and force Congress to replace it. (Selk, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Trump Wants Members Of Congress To Personally Feel The Pain Of Obamacare, Mulvaney Says
Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House budget office, clarified a vague threat issued by President Trump on Twitter on Saturday, saying the president wants members of Congress to bear more of the burden for their heavily subsidized health insurance if they fail to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. (Grandoni, 7/30)

Politico: Mulvaney: No Other Votes Until Senate Votes Again On Health Care
The Senate should not vote on anything else until it’s voted again on repealing Obamacare, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Sunday. Mulvaney said that “yes,” it's official White House policy that the Senate shouldn’t hold a vote on another issue — not even an imminent crisis like raising the debt ceiling— until the Senate votes again on health care. (Klimas, 7/30)

Reuters: U.S. Health Secretary Says His Job Is To Follow Obamacare Law
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on Sunday that it was his department's job to follow the law on the Affordable Care Act, former President Obama's signature domestic initiative known as Obamacare. (Cornwell, 7/30)

Politico: HHS Secretary Pledges To Implement 'Law-Of-The-Land' Obamacare
“Our job is to follow the law of the land, and we take that mission very, very seriously,” Price said. “The role of the Health and Human Services Department is to improve the health, the safety and the well-being of the American people. And what we understand, what the American people understand, is that their health and well-being is being harmed right now by the current law.” (Klimas, 7/30)

The Washington Post: What’s Next For The Affordable Care Act Now That Repeal Has Failed?
The Affordable Care Act has reshaped the nation’s health-care landscape in a way the country has not seen since the passage of Great Society programs in the 1960s. For more than seven years, it has been the foundation for a slew of new regulations and a massive redistribution of funds within the medical system. And it has changed what Americans expect of their government — which is why Republicans, despite having used the ACA as a political rallying cry for seven years, have encountered such difficulty in peeling it back. (Eilperin, 7/28)

The Associated Press: Only A Cat Seems To Have More Lives Than 'Obamacare'
The Senate's surprise vote was only the latest narrow escape for "Obamacare," the social program with nine lives that has survived dozens of congressional attempts to kill it, and two Supreme Court challenges. Not to mention the massive computer crash when HealthCare.gov was launched. (7/29)

Politico: Centrist Lawmakers Plot Bipartisan Health Care Stabilization Bill
A coalition of roughly 40 House Republicans and Democrats plan to unveil a slate of Obamacare fixes Monday they hope will gain traction after the Senate’s effort to repeal the law imploded. The Problem Solvers caucus, led by Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), is fronting the effort to stabilize the ACA markets, according to multiple sources. But other centrist members, including Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), and several other lawmakers from the New Democrat Coalition and the GOP’s moderate Tuesday Group are also involved. (Caygle and Demko, 7/30)

The New York Times: Behind Legislative Collapse: An Angry Vow Fizzles For Lack Of A Viable Plan
The closing argument was a curious one: Vote yes, Republican leaders told the holdouts in their conference. We promise it will never become law. After seven years of railing against the evils of the Affordable Care Act, the party had winnowed its hopes of dismantling it down to a menu of options to appease recalcitrant lawmakers — with no more pretenses of lofty policy making, only a realpolitik plea to keep the legislation churning through the Capitol by voting to advance something, anything. They ended up with nothing. (Flegenheimer, Martin and Steinhauer, 7/28)

The New York Times: How Schumer Held Democrats Together Through A Health Care Maelstrom
Over the past week, as Senate Republicans feverishly cobbled together their doomed health care bill, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, made several quiet visits to the private “hideaway” office of John McCain, Republican of Arizona, near the Senate chamber on the Capitol’s first floor. Senator McCain, who recently received a brain cancer diagnosis, was nervous about the bill, which he thought would harm people in his state, and elegiac about members of his storied family, reminiscing about them at some length. (Steinhauer, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘Embarrassing’ Health-Bill Defeat Casts Doubt On GOP’s Can-Do Pledge
The collapse of Republicans’ drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act is prompting a wave of GOP anger and anxiety across the country, as the defeat has widened divisions within the party and emboldened Democrats hoping for major gains in the 2018 midterm elections. (Hook, 7/28)

The Associated Press: GOP Fears Political Fallout After Health Care 'Epic Fail'
Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on from health care, but conservatives across the United States are warning the GOP-led Congress not to abandon its pledge to repeal the Obama-era health law — or risk a political nightmare in next year's elections. The Senate's failure this past week to pass repeal legislation has outraged the Republican base and triggered a new wave of fear. The stunning collapse has exposed a party so paralyzed by ideological division that it could not deliver on its top campaign pledge. (Peoples and Beaumont, 7/29)

Politico: How Republicans Got Stuck On Repeal
Republicans openly speculated in November whether they could fast-track an Obamacare repeal bill to Donald Trump's desk by Inauguration Day or whether they might need just a few days longer. But Congress got stuck. Its last-ditch attempt to pass a "skinny" bill to kill a few pieces of the health law — many of which Trump could have abolished himself with an executive order — collapsed. (Haberkorn, 7/31)

The Associated Press: Leaders In McCain's Home State Frustrated By Repeal Failure
Sen. John McCain sent shockwaves through the Senate early Friday morning when he cast the deciding vote rejecting the GOP's heath care effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. While his dramatic thumbs-down rejection drew gasps and cheers in Washington, D.C., leaders in Arizona have responded with a mixture of disappointment and frustration — but little in the way of direct criticism in this Republican-heavy state. (7/28)

USA Today/Arizona Republic: What Ducey Told McCain Ahead Of His Big Vote To Kill GOP 'Repeal' Bill
Throughout U.S. Senate deliberations over a proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Sen. John McCain repeatedly invoked the name of Gov. Doug Ducey, saying he wanted to ensure any new law didn't punish their home state of Arizona. "My position on this proposal will be largely guided by Governor Ducey's analysis of how it would impact the people of our state," McCain, R-Ariz., said Thursday during a news conference hours before the late night vote in which he would give a thumbs down to the Senate GOP's so-called "skinny repeal" bill. (Nowicki and Sanchez, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Republicans’ Failure To ‘Repeal And Replace’ Obamacare May Cost Them At The Ballot Box
The Republican Party’s seven-year quest to undo the Affordable Care Act culminated Friday in a humiliating failure to pass an unpopular bill, sparking questions about how steep the costs will be for its congressional majorities. While lawmakers have not completely abandoned the effort, they are now confronting the consequences of their flop. Not only has it left the GOP in a precarious position heading into next year’s midterm elections, but it also has placed enormous pressure on the party to pass an ambitious and complex overhaul of federal taxes. (DeBonis and Phillips, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Three Republican Senators Look To Clout In Home States To End Health-Care Repeal
The three Republican senators who derailed efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on Friday morning took their position despite intense pressure from GOP leaders, suggesting party loyalty won’t be enough to advance President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda this year. (Andrews and Peterson, 7/28)

The Washington Post: In GOP’s Repeal Failure, Democrats Find A Potential Game Plan
Outnumbered but emboldened, progressive Democrats who watched Republicans fail to unwind the Affordable Care Act are thinking harder about passing major expansions of health-care coverage. For many younger activists and legislators, the push to undo the ACA with just 51 Senate votes is less a cautionary tale than a model of how to bring about universal coverage. (Weigel, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Wary And Weary, Progressives Celebrate Victory Over ACA Repeal
Ben Wikler learned the Affordable Care Act’s fate from a text message. The Washington director of MoveOn.org, who had led nearly daily rallies outside the Capitol to stop repeal, was five hours into the final protest when a colleague passed him her phone, buzzing with texts. “Pence not in chair,” read one text. Wikler read it to the 300 protesters gathered around him, in a circle, who had been taking turns giving speeches. “Murkowski is a no. Let me confirm that. Murkowski is a no.” Then: “McCain is a no.”Wikler read the text out loud. “It was like fireworks going off,” he said in an interview. “Everyone started chanting U-S-A. Strangers were hugging.” (Weigel, 7/28)

Reuters: Majority Of Americans Want Congress To Move On From Healthcare Reform: Reuters/Ipsos Poll
A majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare reform at this point after the U.S. Senate's effort to dismantle Obamacare failed on Friday, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Saturday. Nearly two-thirds of the country wants to either keep or modify the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and a majority of Americans want Congress to turn its attention to other priorities, the survey found. (Erman, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: GOP Confronts An Inconvenient Truth: Americans Want A Healthcare Safety Net
The dramatic collapse of Senate legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act may not end the Republican dream of rolling back the 2010 healthcare law. But it lay bare a reality that will impede any GOP effort to sustain the repeal campaign: Americans, though ambivalent about Obamacare in general, don’t want to give up the law’s landmark health protections. (Levey, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Protesters In L.A. And Across The Country Rally To Protect Healthcare From Future Threats
The Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act suffered a major blow this week, but supporters of the law forged ahead Saturday with rallies nationwide — including one in Los Angeles — protesting any further attempts to undermine the existing healthcare system. (Mejia, 7/29)

Reuters: Hundreds Of Counties At Risk For No Obamacare Insurer In 2018
With Republican efforts to dismantle Obamacare in disarray, hundreds of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets in the coming months. Republican senators failed this week to repeal and replace Obamacare, former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law, creating new uncertainty over how the program providing health benefits to 20 million Americans will be funded and managed in 2018. (Humer, 7/28)

The Associated Press: House Moves To Extend Choice Program, End VA Budget Crisis
The House overwhelmingly approved a $3.9 billion emergency spending package to address a budget shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs that threatens medical care for thousands of veterans. The bill provides $2.1 billion to continue funding the Veterans Choice program, which allows veterans to receive private medical care at government expense. Another $1.8 billion would go to core VA health programs, including 28 leases for new VA medical facilities. (Yen and Daly, 7/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Compromise Veterans Affairs Funding Measure Passes House
House members on Friday voted 414-0 to temporarily extend funding for the Veterans Choice program, which allows veterans to more easily get health-care services in the private sector if they aren’t readily available at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. However, the bill is considered a stopgap measure, as the funding shortfall likely will arise again just after the new year. (Kesling, 7/28)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Off Base On Vets, Health Payments
President Donald Trump bragged about a mission accomplished in veterans' health care that has not been achieved. He threatened to end health insurers' "bailouts" that actually help consumers. And he cited "tremendous" costs to taxpayers from providing health services to transgender troops without providing evidence of that expense. (7/31)

Los Angeles Times: NIH To Walk Away From $16 Million Of NFL Gift For Brain Research
Five years ago, four months after the suicide of legendary linebacker Junior Seau, the NFL donated $30 million to the National Institutes of Health for brain research. At the time, the league said its “unrestricted gift” was the largest donation in its history and would help fund a new Sports and Health Research Program to be conducted in collaboration with institutes and centers at the NIH. (Farmer, 7/28)

The Washington Post: FDA Aims To Lower Nicotine In Cigarettes To Get Smokers To Quit
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it wants to reduce the nicotine in cigarettes to make them less addictive. The unexpected announcement sent shares of tobacco companies plummeting and sparked praise among some public health advocates. If successful, the effort would be the first time the government has tried to get the Americans to quit cigarettes by reaching beyond warning labels or taxes to attacking the actual addictive substance inside. (McGinley, 7/28)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Wants Nicotine In Cigarettes To Be Cut To Nonaddictive Levels
The Food and Drug Administration also said it would encourage smokers to switch to products such as e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco that are less dangerous than cigarettes. The so-called harm-reduction strategy is a break by the U.S. government from an abstinence-only approach to fighting tobacco-related diseases and deaths. (Maloney, 7/28)

The Associated Press: FDA Wants To Make Cigarettes Less Addictive By Slashing Nicotine In Them
Gottlieb also said the FDA is giving e-cigarette makers four more years to comply with a review of products already on the market. The agency needs to concentrate on nicotine regulation and not be distracted by the debate on whether e-cigarettes help smokers quit, he said. (7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Complaints Of Drinking, Abusive Behavior Dogged USC Medical School Dean For Years
USC faced a choice five years ago: Keep Dr. Carmen Puliafito at the helm of the Keck School of Medicine or replace him. As dean, Puliafito had brought in star researchers, raised hundreds of millions of dollars and boosted the school’s national ranking — all critical steps in USC’s plan to become an elite research institution. (Ryan, Pringle, Hamilton, Parvini and Elmahrek, 7/30)

The Washington Post: A Doctor Was Killed For Refusing To Prescribe Opioids, Authorities Say
An Indiana man shot and killed himself shortly after gunning down a doctor who refused to prescribe opioid medication to his wife, authorities said this week. The shooting and the suicide unfolded within just hours of each other Wednesday in Mishawaka in northern Indiana, a state that's been gripped by problems with opioid addiction over the past several years. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter told reporters that Michael Jarvis confronted physician Todd Graham for not prescribing an opioid for his wife's chronic pain, but he cautioned that investigators are still determining whether drug addiction played a role in the killing. (Phillips, 7/29)

The Associated Press: Chicago Giving Departing Inmates Overdose-Reversing Drug
Chicago now gives at-risk inmates the overdose-reversing drug naloxone upon their release from jail and Los Angeles is poised to follow suit, putting the antidote in as many hands as possible as part of a multifaceted approach to combatting the nation's opioid epidemic. (Babwin, 7/29)

NPR: Autism Symptoms Are Less Obvious In Girls And May Lead To Underdiagnosis
Many more boys are diagnosed with autism every year than girls. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disorder is 4.5 times more common among boys than girls. Boys appear to be more vulnerable to the disorder, but there is some evidence that the gender gap may not be as wide as it appears. (Neighmond and Greenhalgh, 7/31)

NPR: Marijuana DUIs Are Still Too Subjective Say Cops. Why No BreathTest?
This spring, 16 state patrol officers from Colorado and Wyoming took a couple days off their usual work schedule to do something special. They assembled in a hotel conference room in Denver. As instructed, they wore street clothes for their first assignment: going shopping at nearby marijuana dispensaries."It's a brave new world," said instructor Chris Halsor, referring to the years since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. (Bichell, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Maybe This Is Why You Can't Lose The Weight
After decades of pushing single plans and products that didn’t prove effective for a large chunk of the population, the health and wellness industry is finally zeroing in on more precise solutions tailored to the individual. Here’s a look at some of the latest programs, tools and products designed to take your overall health to the next level. (Fulmer, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Despite Complaints, Judge Says Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Facility Can Reopen
A state appeals court judge ruled Saturday that Southern California Gas Co. can resume operations at its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, the source of the biggest methane leak in the country’s history. On Friday, L.A. County had been granted a temporary restraining order that would have halted the reopening. But a judge ordered the stay lifted on Saturday after the gas company filed a motion opposing the stay. (Karlamangla, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Medical School Without The ‘Sage On A Stage’
When the University of Vermont's medical school opens for the year in the summer of 2019, it will be missing something that all but one of its peer institutions have: lectures. The Larner College of Medicine is scheduled to become the first U.S. medical school to eliminate lectures from its curriculum two years from now, putting it at the leading edge of a trend that could change the way the next generation of physicians learn their profession. (The medical school at Case Western Reserve University also has a no-lecture curriculum, established when the school opened in 2004.) (Bernstein, 7/29)

The New York Times: Charlie Gard Dies, Leaving A Legacy Of Thorny Ethics Questions
Charlie Gard, the incurably ill British infant who died on Friday, could not hear, see or even cry. But his case captured the attention of the pope and the United States president, and raised difficult ethical issues that reverberated around the world. He died with his parents by his side a day after the British High Court ruled that he could be moved to a hospice and that his life support could be withdrawn. His death was confirmed by a family spokesman. (Bilefsky, 7/28)

The Associated Press: Florida Health Care Admin Charged In $1B Medicare Fraud Case
A Florida health care administrator accepted bribes in exchange for helping a nursing home owner accused of orchestrating a $1 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme keep his license, federal prosecutors said. (7/29)

The Associated Press: Judge Blocks Arkansas From Enforcing 4 Abortion Restrictions
A federal judge has blocked Arkansas from enforcing four new abortion restrictions, including a ban on a common second trimester procedure and a fetal remains law that opponents say would effectively require a partner's consent before a woman could get an abortion. (7/29)