• Governors Rally Around Health Law Fixes as White House Pushes Repeal The New York Times by Robert Pear — Governors from both political parties told Congress on Thursday that they supported immediate action on modest, bipartisan steps to repair the Affordable Care Act without repealing it, even as the Trump administration continued to encourage efforts to dismantle the law. They also urged Congress to give states more latitude to modify some insurance requirements in the Affordable Care Act and to devise their own coverage programs. The subsidy money and the flexibility for states are the two main components of a bipartisan consensus emerging in the Senate.
  
  
• Bid to Shore up Obamacare Faces Time Crunch, Conservative Counter-Effort Politico by Jennifer Haberkorn, Adam Cancryn and Rachael Bade — A bipartisan group of senators has palpable momentum but little time to make good on a bid to shore up Obamacare insurance markets, even as conservative Republicans press a parallel attempt to make good on their promise to repeal the health care law. The stabilization effort, led by Republican Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Democrat Patty Murray (Wash.), could yield the first bipartisan Obamacare bill since the law was passed seven years ago. It could also provide some measure of certainty for insurance companies that have until Sept. 27 to make final decisions about whether to participate in Obamacare markets next year.
  
  
• Health Care, Business Groups Want Congress to Pay Insurers Associated Press by Alan Fram —  A coalition of powerful health industry and business groups asked Congress on Tuesday to finance federal subsidies to insurers for at least two years, a stance that defies President Donald Trump's threats to halt the payments. The money — which cost taxpayers $7 billion this year — reimburses insurance companies for trimming out-of-pocket costs for millions of lower-earning customers. Those cost reductions and the subsidies are required by President Barack Obama's health care law, but a federal judge has said Congress didn't legally authorize the money.  "Persistent uncertainty" about whether Trump will block the money "is a significant driver of current market instability," the groups wrote. They reiterated assessments by insurance companies, nonpartisan budget analysts and others that ending the payments would further drive up premiums for millions of Americans buying individual policies and encourage some companies to stop selling coverage.

• Senate GOP Accepting Defeat on Obamacare Repeal Politico by Burgess Everett — Senate Republicans are throwing cold water on the idea of holding another Obamacare repeal vote before their opportunity to gut the law on a party-line vote expires at the end of this month. Though President Donald Trump and some Senate Republicans are pushing a plan being devised by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to block grant federal health care funding to the states and keep much of Obamacare's taxes, the idea of passing the measure by month's end appears almost impossible, according to senators and aides. The bill isn't finished yet, there is no Congressional Budget Office score, and some Republicans are working with Democrats on a bipartisan plan to shore up insurance markets. Furthermore, Republicans don't have a plan that can get 50 votes.

• CHIP Funding Deadline Looms as Senators Signal Bipartisan Support Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer — Republican and Democratic senators agreed Thursday that they need to extend funding for Children's Health Insurance Program, which covers 8.4 million low- and moderate-income children. But there was little or no discussion during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on how to resolve thorny disagreements about details of the program or how long to extend federal funding, which ends Sept. 30. It's unclear whether Senate and House Republican leaders will choose to move renewed CHIP funding as a standalone bill or package it with other measures, such as provisions to stabilize the individual insurance market or extensions of various Medicare programs.
  
  
• Congress' Tight Timetable Complicates Renewal of Children's Health Plan Kaiser Health News by Phil Galewitz — A popular federal-state program that provides health coverage to millions of children in lower- and middle-class families is up for renewal Sept. 30. But in a deeply divided Congress facing such pressing concerns as extending the nation's debt ceiling, finding money for the Hurricane Harvey cleanup and keeping the government open, some health advocates fear that the program for children could be in jeopardy or that conservative lawmakers will seek changes to limit the program's reach. "With all that is on Congress' plate, I am very worried that a strong, wildly successful program with strong public support will get lost in the shuffle and force states to begin the process of winding down CHIP," said Bruce Lesley, president of the advocacy group First Focus.

• Trump Slashes Obamacare Advertising and Outreach Funds Los Angeles Times by Michael Hiltzik — President Trump talks incessantly about how the Affordable Care Act has failed. He has threatened to make it "implode." Now he has taken a major step toward making his own predictions and threats come true. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday that it is cutting the advertising budget for the upcoming open enrollment period for individual insurance policies by a stunning 90 percent, to $10 million from last year's $100 million. The HHS also is cutting funds for nonprofit groups that employ "navigators," those who help people in the individual market understand their options and sign up, by roughly 40 percent, to $36.8 million from $62.5 million. 

• The Uninsured Rate Is Rising for These 3 Groups  Vox by Sarah Kliff —America's uninsured rate has steadily ticked downward ever since the Affordable Care Act became law. This makes a new Commonwealth Fund study quite surprising: It shows the uninsured rate going up for certain demographics. "We did see some troubling upticks," says Sara Collins, senior vice president at Commonwealth Fund and lead author of the study. Collins found the uninsured rate rose among three groups: middle-aged Americans between 35 and 49, middle- and high-income Americans, and those in states that did not expand Medicaid.  Before we dive into details, I think some context is helpful. All available data shows that the country's uninsured rate is at an all-time low. The federal government put out data a few weeks ago showing that more people had insurance in the first three months of 2017 than any other period on record.
  
  
• Frustration Mounts Over Premiums for Individual Health Plans Associated Press by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar — Millions of people who buy individual health insurance policies and get no financial help from the Affordable Care Act are bracing for another year of double-digit premium increases, and their frustration is boiling over. Some are expecting premiums for 2018 to rival a mortgage payment. The most exposed consumers tend to be middle-class people who don't qualify for the law's income-based subsidies. They include early retirees, skilled tradespeople, musicians, self-employed professionals, business owners, and people such as Sharon Thornton, whose small employer doesn't provide health insurance.

• The War on Medicaid Is Moving to the States Moyers and Company by Greg Kaufmann — Recent congressional proposals to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would have reduced Medicaid enrollment by up to 15 million people, and, despite being defeated, congressional Republicans aren't done yet: It's likely they will attempt to gut the program during the upcoming budget debate. Meanwhile, more than half a dozen conservative governors are trying to take a hatchet to the program — at the open invitation of the Trump administration — through a vehicle known as a "Medicaid waiver." Waivers are intended for state pilot projects designed to improve health care coverage for vulnerable populations. But that's not what conservative governors are pursuing.

• Medicare: The New Angie's List? Bloomberg News by Mindy Yochelson — Should an official Medicare website let beneficiaries air their opinions of doctors and other health care professionals? The Medicare agency says there's clamor for this. Patient and caregivers "regularly ask for more information from patients like them in their own words," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) said in a proposed rule. The website in question is called Physician Compare. The CMS said it's considering adding results from five open-ended questions about beneficiaries' experiences with medical professionals. Medical groups say reviews could unfairly damage a medical practice's reputation. Consumers reading the narrative responses online won't have any context from which to make accurate judgments. This could include the type of environment in which they experienced care, the type of caseload the facility and its providers were facing, one medical group said.

Editor: Peter Van Vranken