Health insurers in most states have until June 21 or sooner to decide whether they will participate in the federally facilitated marketplace exchanges in 2018. In several states, that deadline has already passed without any certainty regarding the future of vital federal funding that helps millions of Americans shoulder the burden of deductibles and co-pays.

Billions of dollars in cost-sharing reductions (CSR) that go to an estimated 7 million patients could be affected unless Congress moves quickly to eliminate “the single most destabilizing factor causing double-digit premium increases for 2018,” according to a group of organizations representing America’s physicians, hospitals, businesses, employers and health insurers.

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So-called reality TV is often just as tightly scripted as the masterfully written dramas that dominate what many consider a new golden age of high-caliber television. Yet when the medical profession wants to document real patients for public broadcast, the AMA “Code of Medical Ethics” has specific guidance that physicians should follow.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld a lower-court ruling blocking a proposed $54-billion mega-merger between health insurance giants Anthem and Cigna. The appeals court agreed with the trial court’s ruling that this merger would harm patients because it would likely stifle competition and choice, eliminate the existing head-to-head competition between the two insurers, reduce the number of national carriers from four to three, raise premiums, and diminish quality and innovation.

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The U.S. House of Representatives today passed an amended version of the American Health Care Act without an official estimate of the bill’s costs or its impact on the insurance coverage that more than 20 million people have gained in recent years. The 217–213 vote came after a deal that was struck early this week to capture wavering Congressmen added $8 billion in funding over five years to provide assistance to individuals who may be subject to increased premiums because of a pre-existing condition.

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Confronted by the gravity of an opioid epidemic that contributes to the deaths of 91 Americans daily, the nation’s physicians are making much greater use of state prescription drug-monitoring programs, reducing opioid prescriptions, and increasing prescriptions for the life-saving antidote naloxone. Tens of thousands of physicians nationwide are now certified to provide office-based medication-assisted treatment for opioid-use disorders, yet there remains a treatment gap that leaves too many patients who want help unable to get it.

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The most recent effort to broaden support for the American Health Care Act, which comes in the form of an amendment proposed by New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur, does not address the most serious flaws in the bill and would also undermine critical health insurance consumer protections. For these reasons, the AMA “remains opposed to passage of this legislation,” the Association’s CEO and Executive Vice President, James L. Madara, MD, said today in a letter to House Republican and Democratic leaders.

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