Axios

A new report in the New York Times revealed that President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell haven't spoken in weeks — and McConnell has been telling people behind the scenes that Trump is "unwilling to learn the basics of governing" as his administration approaches the point of no return.

• The flash point: The Senate's failure to pass health care reform led to a "profane shouting match" of a phone call between McConnell and Trump. It also alienated other GOP senators, as West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito was refused a seat on Air Force One after refusing to commit to a repeal vote.
• Why it matters: The GOP's hope for achieving meaningful reform —involving health care, taxes, or infrastructure — rests on Trump keeping an open line of communication with congressional leaders. The more that he poisons that well, the more he risks kneecapping his own agenda.

HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray today announced the first two of four September hearings on the individual market. The first hearing on Sept. 6 will focus on testimony from state insurance commissioners, and the second hearing on Sept. 7 will focus on governors' testimony.

Why it matters: This is a step in their effort to craft a short-term stabilization package after the GOP's partisan health care effort failed.

What's likely to be in the package:

• Funding for the Affordable Care Act's insurer subsidies, which are currently being paid by the Trump administration but which the president has threatened to cut off.
• A more flexible state innovation waiver, although the details on this are unclear, as is the number of years insurer subsidies would be funded.

Wisconsin's insurance department announced all of its counties will be covered in the Affordable Care Act marketplace next year, per the Kaiser Family Foundation. That indicates the only Wisconsin county that previously didn't have coverage plans in the ACA marketplace for next year, Menominee County, now has an Obamacare insurer.

That leaves just one county, Paulding in Ohio, not covered next year in the marketplace.

On the marketplaces:

• Wisconsin: Earlier this month Molina Healthcare announced it would drop out of the Wisconsin marketplace. In June Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield said it would stop selling insurance plans in Wisconsin marketplaces next year for the most part.
• Ohio found Obamacare insurers to fill out 19 of 20 so-called "bare" counties in the state in July.

A federal advisory panel on Monday recommended Medicare scrap a proposal that would slash drug payments to hospitals under the 340B drug pricing program by almost 30 percentage points next year. But it's worth noting that panel is made up of doctors and hospital executives who would be affected most.

Why it matters: The 340B program allows hospitals with a lot of poorer patients to buy drugs at cheaper prices and keep the savings, but it has come under fire in recent years by independent bodies and pharmaceutical groups who say hospitals are profiting excessively off the program. Medicare's proposal has ruffled a lot of feathers (hospitals say it does nothing to lower the high prices set by drug manufacturers), and it's becoming one of the bigger industry battles.

Looking ahead: Public comments on the proposal are due Sept. 11, and Medicare will issue its final rule in the fall.