Democrats are expected to vote early next week on a bill, H.R. 1425, entitled the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act.” The bill is exactly what it explicitly claims to be - a doubling down on the original structure of ObamaCare, with some extra patches added in. This is likely a foreshadowing of the push we’ll see to take the next step in expanding government control of health care should Democrats succeed in taking the White House in 2020.

Last week, four Republican senators unveiled a proposal that could present a path forward on health insurance reform. The proposal, introduced in the form of an amendment to the House-passed version of H.R. 1628, is far from perfect, and it's not the repeal of ObamaCare that was promised. Nevertheless, FreedomWorks is treating it as what is likely to be the last serious attempt at health insurance reform before the September 30 deadline for reconciliation under the FY 2017 budget resolution.

The Congressional Budget Office released a report Thursday on the long-term spending effects of the Senate version of H.R. 1628, the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Unfortunately, Democrats and some in the mainstream media are already spinning the report, claiming that it shows that the bill will cut Medicaid spending. That's wholly inaccurate.

The only thing growing faster than the government, it seems, is the waistline of the average American. Obesity rates have been on the rise over the past several decades, but are now reaching some incredible heights. Nearly two-thirds of the country are now considered overweight or obese and more than one in twenty are considered extremely obese.

Most of the criticisms of the House and Senate health insurance reform bills have centered around the proposed repeal of Medicaid expansion. The House version of H.R. 1628 proposed repeal on January 1, 2020. To placate moderates, the Senate version would delay repeal Medicaid expansion on January 1, 2024.

House Republican leaders and HHS Secretary Tom Price have been briefing the House Republican Conference on the alternatives with which they plan to replace ObamaCare. While the transition period between ObamaCare and the Republican alternative, which still has not been introduced in legislative text, is unspecified, the policy brief that Republican leaders have given to the conference has been leaked to the press.