Anyone following the debate over the “repeal and replace” of the Affordable Care Act knows the 13 Republican senators writing the bill are meeting behind closed doors.

Since the best feature of the Healthy California Act is that all health care will be free, it seems churlish to suggest that someone must pay for something.

Sutter Health and Aetna Inc. are launching a jointly owned health plan for Northern California, in the first time that Aetna (NYSE: AET) has entered a joint partnership with a health system in California.

Anthem's CEO told CNBC on Thursday it was a "complicated decision" to pull out of Ohio's Obamacare market, but said the model had become unsustainable.

The state exchange will now require insurers to create health plans outside of Covered California that would provide the same discounts on out-of-pocket costs that consumers get now with the so-called cost-sharing subsidies. To make up for not receiving the subsidies, insurers would be allowed to charge higher premiums - from 15 to 17 percent higher, according to Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee.

President Donald Trump repeatedly talks tough about reining in the pharmaceutical industry, but his administration’s efforts to lower drug prices are shrouded in secrecy.