The first phase of the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit to halt Anthem Inc.’s planned takeover of rival insurer Cigna Corp. is in the hands of a federal judge after the government wrapped up its arguments Tuesday that the deal would harm competition in the national insurance market.

Hundreds of insurers selling health plans in Affordable Care Act marketplaces are being paid less than 2 percent of nearly $6 billion the government owes them for covering customers last year with unexpectedly high medical expenses.

As drug prices have spiraled upward in the past decade, tens of millions of generally law-abiding Americans have committed an illegal act in response: They have bought prescriptions outside the U.S. and imported them.

Donald Trump is unorthodox, to say the least, when it comes to his opinions about the drug industry.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued the following news release:

With Donald Trump’s recent appointment of Republican Rep. Tom Price to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, President-elect Trump’s promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act seems likely to happen.