LEGAL/OBAMACARE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration has lost another Obamacare legal battle — its second this week — just as the president has revived his drive to destroy and replace the 2010 health law. A federal judge ruled late Thursday [2—28-19] in Washington that the administration’s efforts to expand the availability of health plans that don’t meet the coverage rules of the Affordable Care Act is a deliberate and illegal ‘end run’ around the federal health care law. The ruling addressed insurance known as ‘Association Health Plans,’ which cost less than many Obamacare plans but can also provide fewer health benefits. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, comes just one day after another federal judge rejected the Trump administration’s embrace of work requirements for people on Medicaid, concluding that those new rules in Kentucky and Arkansas violate the program’s primary goal of delivering health care coverage to low-income Americans. Medicaid work requirements and expanding coverage options outside Obamacare rules have been linchpins of the Trump administration’s approach to health care.”
–Paul Demko, “Trump administration suffers another Obamacare blow in court,” Politico, March 28, 2019 9:00 pm