Axios

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer posted a $3.9 billion profit in the second quarter, equating to a 29% profit margin. Notably, after being asked on a conference call about the Trump administration's plans to overhaul drug pricing, CEO Ian Read told investors: "I believe we are going to go to a marketplace where we don't have rebates."

The big picture: Read's comment comes a few weeks after he spoke with President Trump about deferring his company's drug price hikes. Pharma companies like Pfizer would relish any changes to the secretive drug rebate system because it would deflect attention away from their pricing practices, but analysts say any changes would not happen soon.

President Trump rejected a push to let states adopt a scaled-down version of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, The New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Senior health officials pushed the partial expansion as a middle ground for red states, but it was ultimately seen as too pro-ACA, the Times reports. Without that option, though, some conservative states are poised to adopt the full Medicaid expansion this fall.

People who don’t receive the ACA’s premium subsidies are fleeing the individual insurance market, leaving it smaller and more concentrated, according to the latest data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The big picture, from Kaiser: "The availability of premium subsidies … is likely sufficient to keep the individual insurance market financially sustainable ... However, based on the current trajectory, the market is likely to be increasingly dominated by lower-income people and those with pre-existing conditions."

Two things are true about the prospect of switching to a single-payer health care system: It could easily be less expensive than the system we have now, and it would require substantial tax increases.

Driving the news: The libertarian Mercatus Center made waves yesterday with a report that said Sen. Bernie Sanders' version of "Medicare for All" would require about $32.6 trillion in new federal spending over its first 10 years.

Democrats' health care message is resonating with critically important blocs of midterm voters, according to the latest Axios/SurveyMonkey polling on how five key voter groups view the issues in the election.

The big picture: Democrats are moving left on health care. Embracing the Affordable Care Act is now a given, and candidates are increasingly embracing a bigger role for the federal government. The voters they'll need most this fall — including white suburban women and Millennials — are largely on board.

In recent elections, Republicans have effectively used health care and anti-Affordable Care Act sentiment to rally their base. Now, the repeal effort has made the ACA more popular and given Democrats a weapon to use to motivate their base and reach out to independents.

Between the lines: The importance of health care as a national priority is sometimes overstated — but our recent polling shows it really could be a decisive issue in the midterms. That's because it has been surging as an issue for Democrats, and in an election many see as a referendum on President Trump, it may now be as important a factor as Trump is.

A new study from the Mercatus Center, a libertarian policy center at George Mason University, projects that progressive Democrats' "Medicare for All" plan would cost the government $32.6 trillion over 10 years.

Why it matters: The study concludes that doubling all federal individual and corporate income taxes would not be enough to cover the added costs of the plan.

A promising new drug called BAN2401 generated a lot of excitement after a clinical trial found it slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s by 30%, but recent revelations have left investors and doctors with more questions than answers, reports Bloomberg.

The bottom line: Whenever you hear about a promising new Alzheimer’s treatment, make a mental note to check back in a few months — or even a few days — to see if it’s still worth your attention.