• A survey of 1,000 patients recently found that only 31% view cost as very important when making a health care decision.
• Other countries often exclude expensive, unproven treatments from health coverage, but "when American insurance companies try this approach, they invariably run into a buzz saw of public outrage," Freedman writes.

The bottom line: Americans are often over-treated, but doctors say that's because patients demand it — and that they fear malpractice lawsuits.

• And then there are patients who disregard what their doctors say — like failing to take their prescribed medication.

Go deeper: Drug pricing's "double whammy" for patients with chronic illnesses

What it means: "The aim is to stanch China's well-documented and costly theft of U.S. innovation and know-how. The collateral effect, however, is to stymie basic science, the foundational research that underlies new medical treatments," Waldman adds.

Details: Cancer researcher Xifeng Wu, an American citizen, resigned in January from a top position at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, after a months-long investigation into her professional ties to China.

• The investigation was led by the National Institutes of Health and the FBI. Three other Chinese-American scientists also recently left MD Anderson.
• An NIH official said Wu and 4 other scientists had violated confidentiality requirements and didn't disclose paid work in China.

Yes, but: Cancer research has become increasingly globalized, and U.S.-China collaborations have produced meaningful work.

• "Ways of working that have long been encouraged by the NIH and many research institutions ... are now quasi-criminalized," Waldman writes.

What they're saying: "Even something that is in the fundamental research space, that’s absolutely not classified, has an intrinsic value," Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the NIH, told Bloomberg.

• "This pre-patented material is the antecedent to creating intellectual property. In essence, what you’re doing is stealing other people's ideas."

Go deeper: For Trump, 2020 is a China trade war election

• The policy doesn't ban employers from offloading their sickest workers, though it tries to limit that practice.
• If businesses do shift the workers with the highest medical bills away from the company-sponsored health plan, that plan's premiums would go down. But the influx of sicker patients into the individual market would drive those premiums up.

The other side: The administration, on the other hand, argues that the rule will enhance competition in the individual market.

The bottom line: The rule also allows employers to contribute to their employees' purchase of short-term plans. These plans appeal to younger, healthier people, which means that older, sicker workers could end up paying higher premiums, according to Brookings.

Go deeper: Not everyone likes their employer health coverage