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On Twitter, President Donald Trump said he would be “using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people — FAST.” He isn’t bluffing. His White House has been working on a series of executive actions on health insurance. But his tweet is misleading. The most far-reaching action under consideration would not give anyone health care. Rather, it would dramatically reduce enforcement of Obamacare’s fines on people without insurance. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 10/11)

President Donald Trump on Thursday plans to sign an order that could rattle the Affordable Care Act’s private insurance markets by allowing a proliferation of cheaper, less comprehensive plans that would undermine rules about who and what insurers must cover. The changes represent a step toward repeal of Obamacare, something Trump and Republicans have unsuccessfully attempted to do through legislation. And the ultimate impact on small businesses and people who buy private coverage on their own ― the two groups Thursday’s order would affect directly ― is likely to resemble some of the effects that experts predicted GOP repeal bills would have if they become law. (Jonathan Cohn, 11/11)

Covered California made it official Thursday: The Trump administration’s waffling will raise health insurance premiums an additional 12.4% for many Californians not covered by large employer plans. In some cases, the Trump-induced surcharge will be 27%. Those increases are on top of an average premium increase of 12.5% due to other factors. In other words, premium increases will be twice as high next year for many Californians, simply because the Trump administration (and Congress) won’t commit to reimbursing insurers for the payments the government requires them to make. (Jon Healey, 10/11)

We know that Congress is just unimaginably busy right now, so perhaps it’s understandable that 11 days after funding for a crucial children’s healthcare program expired, the lawmakers still haven’t gotten around to restoring it. We’re talking about the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program serving 9 million children and their mothers. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/11)

Americans are dying at the rate of 175 a day from opioid overdoses, but President Trump has yet to deliver his promised strategy to end the crisis. And so the people’s representatives, in the absence of presidential leadership, did about the only thing they could do. They had a day of opioid karaoke. There wasn’t actual music. But it was open-mic day Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The panel invited members of Congress to take the witness seat and, in three minutes or less, sing a sad song about how the opioid crisis is ruining the lives of their constituents. (Dana Milbank, 10/11)

Saudi women are gaining the right to drive. American women are losing the right to employer-provided birth control. The first development signifies a theocratic kingdom’s bow to the inexorable onslaught of modernity. The second is a cynical bow to the forces of reaction against modernity. (Linda Greenhouse, 10/11)

Adult day centers seem to have made it into the political debate in Washington, though not in a good way. In his nasty weekend back-and-forth with President Trump, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) suggested the White House has become an “adult care center” and wondered if the staff had “missed a shift” when Trump launched his Sunday Twitter storm. ... Leaving aside this mature level of political discourse, the name-calling does raise an important question: What are adult day centers and how do they work? Adult day centers can be an important service to frail seniors and other people with disabilities who are living at home. (Howard Gleckman, 10/11)

Gov. Jerry Brown can take an important step in recognizing housing is health care by signing Assembly Bill 74 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco. Our emergency department staff at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center can do little to prevent a homeless patient from returning again and again to the hospital for preventable and manageable conditions. (Rene Santiago, 10/11)