The Trump administration's latest effort to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's protections for pre-existing conditions is opening a rift among Republicans, and even within the executive branch.
Between the lines: Congressional Republicans seem to just now be waking up to the fact that the Trump administration has boxed them into a new round of questions about whether the party wants to guarantee coverage for pre-existing conditions.
A senior attorney at the Justice Department has resigned in response to the agency's decision last week not to defend the Affordable Care Act in court because it believes the individual mandate provision is unconstitutional, the Washington Post reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The details: Joel McElvain, who reportedly has been working at the Justice Department for more than 20 years, tendered his resignation on Friday — the day Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed congressional lawmakers about his decision on Obamacare. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the provision in 2012, and the Trump administration's move has roll back years of legal work McElvain carried out on this issue. The individual mandate requires most people to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty.
KKR's $10 billion deal to take Envision Healthcare private, along with Bloomberg's deep dive on the billing tactics of air ambulances, exemplifies private equity firms' appetite for buying health care providers that wield a lot of market power.
The big picture: These companies are a leading source of surprise medical bills, which infuriate patients but are profitable for private equity owners. Emergency rooms and ambulances aren't real marketplaces — consumers can't stop and shop for the best price in the middle of an emergency.
