Axios

Not to worry, Freedom Caucus! President Trump isn't tweetstorming you this morning. And he isn't going after House Speaker Paul Ryan, either. Here's all he has tweeted about the collapse of Trumpcare:

It's a sign that Trump is sticking to the scenario he laid out yesterday after the House pulled the bill: Democrats will come crawling back to us. So far, they haven't, but we will keep you posted if it happens.

When the balky hardliners of the House Freedom Caucus visited the White House earlier this week, this was Steve Bannon's opening line, according to people in the conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building:

Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill.

We've read the "inside the story" stories from Politico, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and others, and combined them into a chronological account of Trumpcare's final days. Enjoy!

There's still a black cloud hanging over the individual and small-group health insurance markets next year even though Republicans and President Trump failed to vote on and pass their health care bill:

Health insurance companies looking to sell Obamacare plans in 2018 need to know the fate of the law's cost-sharing subsidies for low-income enrollees, which are the target of a pending House lawsuit, and if the Trump administration will make any of its own regulatory changes. Insurers have until June or July to file their 2018 proposed rates and health plan designs.

A lack of clear rules could still drive insurers out. "Rather than play pin the tail on the donkey with nine-figure decisions, most would probably opt not to participate," said John Gorman, a health insurance consultant and former official with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

President Trump delivered remarks nearly an hour after he called off the vote on the Obamacare repeal and replace plan. Next on the agenda following the GOP's health care failure is tax reform, said Trump.

Trump said the votes were "very close": "Maybe 10-15 votes." Added, "We had no support from the Democrats. They weren't going to give us a single vote."

Open to a new health care bill: "I'd be totally open" to getting together with the Democrats to create a new health care bill, said Trump. "Whenever they're ready we're ready."

The losers: "I think the losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Now they own it... Obamacare will unfortunately explode it's going to be a very bad year."

Trump's role in the failure: "I worked as a team player... and I would've loved to have seen it passed... I think this was a very good bill, but I think [the next one] will be even better."

Here's the basic dynamic in the healthcare fight: the White House wants to force a vote on the floor, and House GOP leaders want to pull the bill.

Asked what message the White House gave to GOP leaders today, a senior administration official gave Axios a one word response: "vote."

Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy know they're short on the vote count and would rather pull the bill than face a potentially humiliating legislative defeat, according to multiple sources familiar with their thinking. Referring to the White House's demands, a source close to leadership said, "Is Trump Speaker?"

The prospect of pulling the Obamacare replacement bill is now a matter of discussion among House leaders, according to sources familiar with the conversations. As House Speaker Paul Ryan heads to the White House to brief the president, multiple sources close to leadership say the whip team is still short on votes and is pessimistic about bringing this home today. Some usually chatty aides in the White House and leadership didn't respond to questions about whether they were discussing pulling the bill.

Our thought bubble: What leadership keenly understands is that the bottom falls out on a vote like this. It's not like Trump will get a clear read on who is with him and who's against. Members that are currently in the "yes" column will not vote for a bill that is going down and will have the negative implications hung around their neck in the fall of 2018. If GOP leaders put the bill on the floor without the votes to win, it won't lose by a handful, it will lose badly.

The Democratic super PAC Priorities USA is shining a spotlight on the GOP health care bill's terrible polling. With a House vote imminent, it polled voters in 20 congressional districts (11 went for Hillary Clinton; 9 for Donald Trump) with a Republican member of Congress …

• After being told that their member of Congress supports the GOP bill, net voter support dropped from +12 to -21.
• The number that should terrify Republicans: voters generally said they'd reelect their member of Congress 44-38, but after being told about their member's support for the health care bill, that shifted to 45-38 in favor of a Democratic challenger.

The fate of the healthcare bill is unknowable after yesterday's embarrassing delay and President Trump's strong-arm gamble of demanding a vote today. "Failure is an option," Axios' David Nather writes.

But lessons from the debacle are already apparent:

Here's the reality that President Trump and Republican leaders are facing: They want to repeal Obamacare, but not the popular parts of Obamacare. But to the most conservative Republicans, and their supporters, repeal means repeal — which includes everything, whether it's popular or not.

That's why Trump and GOP leaders haven't been able to close the deal with the Freedom Caucus, and will have to try to steamroller them with today's vote. It's why they have the Koch brothers after them. And it's why, barring a miraculous turnaround, they're not getting any closer to a deal that can survive the Senate as well as the House.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Bavencio, a drug that treats a rare form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma. The breakthrough drug also received orphan drug status from the FDA, meaning it has seven years of market exclusivity.

Bavencio's list price: $13,000 per month, or $156,000 per year. A spokeswoman for EMD Serono, the maker of the drug, confirmed the list price to Axios. However, that price does not reflect rebates or discounts. The amount patients will pay depends on their health insurance.

In 2014, Pfizer and EMD Serono's parent company, the German-based Merck KGaA, agreed to jointly develop and sell the drug.