A bipartisan push for legislation to protect patients from massive "surprise" medical bills is facing a buzzsaw of opposition from doctors and hospitals and reservations from some Democrats worried about delivering President Trump a health care victory when he is still attacking ObamaCare.

The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday published a notice asserting that health insurance companies face a $15.5 billion tax bill in 2020 if the ACA's health insurance tax resumes as planned.

A federal judge reviewing a Justice Department decision to allow U.S. pharmacy chain and benefits manager CVS Health Corp to merge with health insurer Aetna said on Wednesday that the agreement was in fact legal under antitrust law.

In the battle over what Congress should do to end surprise medical bills, both sides of the debate are pointing to California's experience—and drawing different conclusions. A law enacted in September 2016 put a cap on out-of-network charges, tied either to the median in-network contracted rates with insurers or 125% of Medicare—whichever is higher.

Congress may be attempting to take action against surprise bills that prove to be the financial undoing of so many consumers, but not if physician groups have anything to say about it.

Eight months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a plan to lower the state’s prescription drug costs. The central idea: By consolidating the market power of state agencies into one statewide pool, California could gain greater leverage to negotiate with drugmakers.