Friday Five: Top 5 healthcare business news items from the MCOL Weekend edition

Every business day, MCOL posts feature stories making news on the business of health care. Here are five we think are particularly important for this week:

Trump further disrupts Obamacare repeal efforts

Just three days after running a widely praised meeting among GOP senators devoted to repealing Obamacare, President Donald Trump threw Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's already ailing bill into further chaos Friday.

Politico. Friday, June 30, 2017

Men Wrote The Senate Health Care Bill. This Woman Could Stop It.

As Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tries to negotiate his way to a health bill that can win at least 50 Republican votes, there is one woman in the Senate who could stop the bill cold. She isn’t even a senator. Elizabeth MacDonough is the Senate’s parliamentarian, the first woman to hold that post, which involves advising senators on the chamber’s byzantine rules and procedures.

Kaiser Health News. Friday, June 30, 2017

Just 17 Percent Of Americans Approve Of Republican Senate Health Care Bill

Americans broadly disapprove of the Senate GOP's health care bill, and they're unhappy with how Republicans are handling the efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

NPR. Wednesday, June 28, 2017

From Birth To Death, Medicaid Affects The Lives Of Millions

Medicaid is the government health care program for the poor. That's the shorthand explanation. But Medicaid is so much more than that — which is why it has become the focal point of the battle in Washington to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. NPR. Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Senate And House Take Different Plans To Scrap Individual Mandate

The Affordable Care Act’s tax penalty for people who opt out of health insurance is one of the most loathed parts of the law, so it is no surprise that Republicans are keen to abolish it. But the penalty, called the individual mandate, plays a vital function: nudging healthy people into the insurance markets where their premiums help pay for the cost of care for the sick. Kaiser Health News. Monday, June 26, 2017

These and more weekly news items on the business of healthcare are featured in the MCOL Weekend edition, along with the MCOL Tidbits, and more, for MCOL Premium level members.