"Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

—President Donald J. Trump

"Who are these 22 million Americans . . . who now have health care that didn't have it before? They aren't aliens from a distant planet. They're our friends and neighbors. . . . They're farmers, restaurant workers, part-time teachers, nurse's aides, construction workers, and entrepreneurs working at high-tech start-ups."

—Former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear 

A Must-Watch: 

Obamacare: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

• Donald Trump Learns That Reforming Health Care Is 'Complicated' by Ryan Lizza—I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject," President Donald Trump told a group of governors at the White House yesterday. "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."....Large-scale reform of the American health-care system is one of the most complicated policy issues the government faces, as all of Trump's modern predecessors learned. "The health care reform story illuminates almost every aspect of the presidency," David Blumenthal and James Morone write in The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office, a 2009 examination of how 11 Presidents, from to Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush, grappled with the issue. "Because health reform is excruciatingly difficult to win, it tests presidents' ideas, heart, luck, allies, and their skill at running the most complicated government machinery in the world."
  
  
• Trump Giving Lawmakers Whiplash on Obamacare Politico by Josh Dawsey and Rachana Pradhan—The president will have to gain some message discipline if he wants to push through a repeal-and-replace plan….Whether the White House can repeal and replace the law this spring—as Capitol Hill leaders say is the goal—largely depends on the president's ability to focus and outline the specifics of what he would like, while convincing reluctant GOP members to back a plan.
  
  
• Republicans Still Waiting For Trump to Take Charge on Obamacare and Taxes Los Angeles Times by Lisa Mascaro—President Trump has been reluctant to take charge of Republicans' policy priorities, and GOP lawmakers worry their early momentum is fading amid intraparty squabbles over legislation and Trump's tendency to flit from topic to topic when what they most need now is focus. The Republican majority has been left hungering for leadership and bickering among themselves over what to do next.
  
  
• House Leaders: Obamacare Repeal Will Pass This Month Politico by Rachael Bade, Kyle Cheney, and John Bresnahan—With Donald Trump reportedly on board, the House is poised to steamroll conservative opposition, senior lawmakers say. Take it to the bank, GOP leaders are all but declaring: The House will vote to repeal and replace by the end of this month. Their confidence, coming after months of dead ends and false starts, is fueled by the belief that President Donald Trump has their back—even if some conservatives currently don't.  
  
  
• VP Mike Pence Vows 'No One Is Going to Fall Through the Cracks' in Plan to Repeal, Replace Obamacare "Good Morning America" by Morgan Winsor—Vice President Mike Pence said today "no one is going to fall through the cracks" in President Donald Trump's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. "What the president wants the Congress to do is to create a framework for people to be able to afford coverage," Pence said on ABC News' "Good Morning America."
  
  
• Obamacare 'Collapsing'? That's a Stretch Politico by Rachana Pradhan—This year was definitely rough for Obamacare, with declining choice in plans and sharp price hikes seen around the country. But while the law may be on especially shaky ground in some places—the private markets in Tennessee and Oklahoma come to mind—that's not the case everywhere. Other independent analysts have said there are signs that the health of the individual market is improving and the law is not in a so-called "death spiral."

• Trump Opposes Required Health Benefits but Reveals Few Details of His Plan to End the ACA Washington Post by Amy Goldstein—In his first address to a joint session of Congress—a high-wattage moment to articulate his central goals—President Trump defied expectations he had repeatedly set that he was about to unveil a concrete plan to abolish the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and steer federal health policy onto a more conservative path. The five minutes Trump devoted to health care Tuesday night was largely a recitation of longtime Republican ideas that he has adopted, with an emphasis on removing the rules the Affordable Care Act placed on insurers to try to promote comprehensive health benefits.

• Health Care Is Front and Center in Democrats' Response to Trump Address New York Times by Jonathan Martin—The decision by the congressional Democratic leadership to invite former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, 72, who has been out of office for more than a year, was a departure from tradition for the opposition party, which usually chooses a rising star to offer the televised response to the president's speech. But Democratic leaders are determined to make health care—particularly Medicare and the Affordable Care Act—the centerpiece of their attacks against Republicans leading into next year's midterm elections. And as Mr. Beshear alluded to, he has a compelling story to tell about the effect of the health law in a conservative-leaning state.

• The Political Time Bomb at the Heart of Republican Obamacare Alternatives: Higher Costs for More Americans Los Angeles Times by Noam Levey—Republicans came into office this year promising to rescue Americans from rising health care bills by repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. But the party's emerging health care proposals would shift even more costs to patients, feeding the very problem GOP politicians complained about under Obamacare. And their solutions could hit not only Americans who have Obamacare health plans, but also tens of millions more who rely on employer coverage or on government health plans such as Medicaid and Medicare.
  
  
• Lifetime Health Insurance Caps Worry Those Facing Chronic Illness USA Today by Holly Fletcher —Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration have vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which, when signed into law by President Obama in 2010, removed lifetime limits on how much an insurer would spend on a member while on a plan. If limits are again allowed, patients will be responsible for all costs incurred after the cap is hit.

• GOP Governors Forming Plan to Keep Obama Medicaid Expansion Bloomberg by Zachary Tracer & Anna Edney—A group of Republican governors is preparing a compromise plan for their peers in Congress who want to roll back Obamacare's Medicaid benefits, asking them to preserve the law's expansion of coverage to millions of poor people. The compromise proposal has been initiated by a group including Ohio Governor John Kasich and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and would hold on to parts of the Affordable Care Act's expansion of the program. It's meant to satisfy Republican goals of repealing Obamacare and giving more control of Medicaid to the states, while also maintaining coverage of people such as childless adults and those just above the poverty level. It would also open the door for states such as Wisconsin to broaden Medicaid eligibility.

• More Than 80 Percent of Patient Groups Accept Drug Industry Funds, Study Shows New York Times by Katie Thomas— The nation's largest patient advocacy groups are on the front lines of some of the biggest health care debates, from the soaring costs of prescription drugs to whether new medicines are being approved quickly enough. But while their voices carry weight because they represent the interests of sick patients, a new study has found that more than 80 percent of them accept funding from drug and medical-device companies. 
  
  
• Drugmakers Pledge Restraint, but Prices Will Still Soar AP by Linda A. Johnson—Several big drugmakers are trying to quell the furor over high drug prices by revealing more information about their pricing and even pledging to keep a lid on increases. No one should expect to be paying less for medicine anytime soon, experts say, though the drugmakers' response to public pressure may help slow the rise in prices for some drugs. The latest drugmaker move came Monday, when Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest maker of health care products, issued its first public report on price increases for its drugs. 

• Health Care Experiment Aims for Healthier Patients, Lower Costs Stateline by Michael Ollove—Vermont, with a population more rural and less diverse than the country as a whole, is embarking on an experiment that could transform the delivery of health care nationwide….Under Vermont's plan, to be phased in through 2022, health plans would pay doctors and hospitals based on how well they care for their patients and contain costs, rather than on the volume of services they provide. Some health care plans, public and private, have been experimenting with "pay for performance" systems for more than a decade. But Vermont's experiment is the most ambitious, aiming to cover 70 percent of the state's residents (excluding those who are in out-of-state employer-sponsored plans), whether they are beneficiaries of Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial health insurance.