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Some lawmakers are also discussing changes to the bill to help bring moderates on board. How to balance the demands of the two groups is a difficult task, and no one has found the right formula yet. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, said “it’d be hard” to design a bill…

The Trump administration appears to have scrapped one of the key tools the Obama administration used to encourage states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The shift involves funding that the federal government provides to help hospitals defray the cost of caring for low-income people who are uninsured. Under a deal with Florida,…

A renewed effort to bring a House Republican plan to the floor faltered by week’s end, a blow to President Donald Trump’s hopes of landing a health-care deal in his first 100 days. Republicans are vowing to push ahead with the bill, saying it has stalled but not died. But the herculean struggle to craft…

The three latest theatrical gambits to fan the smoldering embers of the previously-abandoned AHCA include: 1. The cost-sharing subsidy payment termination bluff, 2. Grasping for the thinly-funded straw of “invisible” risk pools to promise individual insurance market premium reductions and protection of coverage for persons with pre-existing health conditions, and 3. The Freedom Caucus “lions”…

House GOP leaders determined Thursday night that they didn’t have the votes to pass a rewrite of the Affordable Care Act and would not seek to put their proposal on the floor on Friday. A late push to act on health care had threatened the bipartisan deal to keep the government open for one week…

Congressional Republicans have called for restructuring Medicaid, reviving a debate that has largely remained dormant for two decades. During the mid-1990s, Congress and President Clinton advanced competing Medicaid reform proposals. Republicans urged that the federal government issue Medicaid block grants to states. The White House and congressional Democrats proposed instead to place per capita limits…

Even as Anthem, one of the nation’s largest insurers, reported an improved financial picture for the last year, the company warned on Wednesday that it would consider leaving some federal health care marketplaces or raising its rates sharply if the government does not continue subsidies to help low-income people. Joseph R. Swedish, the company’s chief…

The conventional approach to health insurance keeps consumers in the dark about how their health care dollars are spent. Patients pay premiums every month and rely on insurers to cover their medical expenses, no matter how small or routine. Consequently, patients have little incentive to be cost-conscious. The more care they consume, the more value…

The “MacArthur Amendment” to the American Health Care Act is responsive to what House Republicans have learned about the priorities different factions within their coalition. The Freedom Caucus prioritizes deregulation of the individual insurance market to lower costs and constrain the federal role. The moderates prioritize coverage levels and protection for people with pre-existing conditions.…

The Invisible Risk-Sharing Program (IRSP) will stabilize the individual insurance market and lower premiums while concurrently providing guaranteed access to coverage and protecting those with pre-existing conditions. Different than a traditional high-risk pool, no one is declined coverage, enrollees with pre-existing health conditions get the same plans at the same lower price as a healthy individual,…