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With whiffs of cigarette smoke wafting from the adjoining Band Box bar, surrounded by the nonstop clatter of bowling pins, Donna Brown and Kaci Rickert sat across from each other at a little low table one recent evening at the shabby, homey Levittown Lanes. The women’s league teammates ate salad and ziti and made small talk. Brown got up for her turn, and Rickert offered an admission in what was almost a whisper. “We’re on two different sides of the political aisle,” she said, “but we don’t discuss it.” There was, however, one perennial problem they wanted to talk about. And when they started, they couldn’t stop. (Kruse, 10/15)

In a windowless conference room, Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally was asking executives at a small crane manufacturing company how the GOP tax cut has helped their business when one woman said: "I want to ask you a question about health care." Marylea Evans recounted how, decades ago, her husband had been unable to get health insurance after developing cancer, forcing the couple to sell some of their Texas ranch to pay for his treatment. Now she was worried about Democratic ads saying McSally, currently a congresswoman, supported legislation removing the requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. (Riccardi, 10/15)

The battle over keeping the Affordable Care Act's strong insurance protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions has surged to the center of tight House and Senate contests across the country. But the issue has become particularly heated in two toss-up House races in Iowa. Unregulated Farm Bureau health plans will go on sale Nov. 1, and they can consider pre-existing conditions under a new state law. It's expected that some Iowans applying for the cheaper Farm Bureau plans will get turned down or will be quoted higher rates based on their health status. That could raise the stakes for voters. (Meyer, 10/12)

This is a story about how relatively minor procedural votes make their way into campaign ads. A key issue in the debate over the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the failed House Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, was Obamacare’s popular provisions barring insurance companies from refusing people with preexisting health conditions — or charging them more. As we have documented, the GOP bill would have weakened those protections, with states having the option to make changes that could have left people with preexisting conditions vulnerable to large increases in premiums, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (Kessler, 10/15)

Dozens of vulnerable House Republicans have recently signed on to bills or resolutions in support of pre-existing conditions protections, part of an eleventh-hour attempt to demonstrate their affinity for one of ObamaCare’s most popular provisions. Thirty-two of the 49 GOP incumbents in races deemed competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report have backed congressional measures on pre-existing conditions in the past six weeks, according to an analysis by The Hill. (Hellmann, 10/14)

Candidates in Ohio's U.S. senate campaign sparred Sunday over health care, approaches to climate change, student loan debt, immigration, tariffs and gun control in the first of three debates. Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci repeatedly criticized incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown as being a Washington insider, citing Brown's connections to Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer multiple times. (Welsh-Huggins, 10/14)

�Թϲ�����es from California's most competitive swing districts are reflecting an outsize interest in health care issues, according to search data from Google Trends. In nearly all of the seven districts rated "Lean" or "Toss Up" by the Cook Political Report, election searches around health care issues outnumbered interest in issues like immigration or the economy. (Marzorati, 10/13)

Tim Walz and Jeff Johnson are both promising Minnesotans better-quality health care for less cost.But it is unlikely that either candidate for governor’s plan would do just that.That’s the conclusion of several health care experts interviewed by the Pioneer Press. ...Walz, a Democrat and Mankato congressman, is pushing a philosophy that expands government programs to those who would benefit from them. Johnson, a Republican Hennepin County commissioner, is arguing that government needs to get out of the way and allow market forces to work. (Orrick and Magan, 10/14)

The South Dakota Legislature’s social calendar was busy this year. Video lottery operators held a hog roast. Truckers put on an ice cream sundae social. Beer distributors organized an especially sought-after gathering featuring plenty of samples. And the American Legislative Exchange Council, known for drafting conservative-leaning model legislation, hosted a wine and cheese party. The gatherings — 107 events in all during the Legislature’s 38-day session — are popular with lawmakers, but less so with the public. (Williams, 10/15)

Idaho’s small-town hospitals have their own reason to back Medicaid expansion: In some cases, it may keep their doors open. After years of stalled debate in the Idaho Legislature, expansion will go to a statewide public vote Nov. 6. Among other arguments, proponents have urged Idahoans to consider that small, rural hospitals may have to close if they can’t start tapping Medicaid for their poorest patients. (Dutton and Davlin, 10/14)