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President Donald Trump urged Senate Republicans on Sunday to "not let the American people down," as the contentious debate over overhauling the U.S. health care systems shifts to Congress' upper chamber, where a vote is potentially weeks, if not months, away. (Superville, 5/7)

The White House is hoping to harness insurance-market woes in some states to help lift the GOP’s health-care measure over the remaining hurdles in Congress, a strategy that reflects President Donald Trump’s own high-stakes approach to deal-making. With the House GOP health bill now before the Senate, White House aides say their job may become easier as health insurers in the next few weeks make final decisions about where to sell coverage next year and how to price it. Early signals have raised the prospect of no insurers offering coverage in parts of Iowa and Tennessee, and of premium surges in states such as Virginia and Maryland. (Radnofsky and Bender, 5/7)

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday he doubts states will take the option of letting insurance companies charge sicker people more if the GOP health care bill the House narrowly passed Thursday becomes law. "It doesn’t affect anyone with continuous coverage, even if a governor — which I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen — takes the waiver option,” Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday.” (Groppe, 5/7)

Trump administration officials defended Sunday the president’s victory lap over a health care bill far from completion, and the fact that the Rose Garden news conference featured mostly men. “The president achieved something that no one thought he would,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think we were right to give the Congress an attaboy in the Rose Garden. But we also know that this is just the beginning, it’s the first step.” (Groppe, 5/7)

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Sunday said President Trump is “absolutely” keeping his promises to the American people on healthcare. Americans will be "covered in a way that they want” under the new healthcare plan, Price told Andrea Mitchell on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Price dismissed critics who say that the Republican plan, recently passed in the House, does not take care of individuals with pre-existing conditions. (Shellbourne, 5/7)