Caitlin Owens: “Many Republicans assume their party will take another stab at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act if the midterm elections go their way, even though GOP candidates aren’t making a big deal about it on the campaign trail.”

Said one GOP operative: “Repeal is like fight club. First rule is not to talk about it.”

Jonathan Chait: “It may be difficult to believe that, after a devastating failure that registered historically ruinous approval in public opinion surveys, Republicans would try the same thing again with a presumably narrower House majority. But such an outcome may be more plausible than you might think.”

“A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly,” the New York Times reports.

“Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.”

“Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.”

“Democrats have spent more than Republicans on Obamacare ads this cycle, a major shift from every other election since the health care law passed,” HuffPost reports.

“Pro-Obamacare spending was significantly higher for the month of June, accounting for a major reason Democrats closed the gap: Last month, there were nearly $4 million in pro-Obamacare ads, compared with $1.1 million on the other side.”

“Obamacare premiums are once again poised to spike by double digits in 2019, causing heartburn for politicians as voters will head to the polls within days of learning about the looming hit to their pocketbooks,” Politico reports.

“But unlike recent campaign cycles, when Republicans capitalized on Obamacare sticker shock to help propel them to complete control of Congress and the White House, they’re now likely to be the ones feeling the wrath of voters.”

Politico: “Republicans on Capitol Hill are giving up on what might be their last best chance to overhaul Medicare, just as they’re losing their leading champion on the issue, House Speaker Paul Ryan. The quiet surrender on a subject that’s energized GOP fiscal hawks for the better part of a decade comes as new projections show Medicare’s trust fund in its worst shape since the recession, partly because of Republicans’ other chief obsession: their sweeping tax cuts.”

“That’s left conservatives unsure how to agitate for a politically unpopular Medicare overhaul — one that President Trump detests — and raises new questions about who will take up the entitlement reform mantle as Ryan heads for the exits.”

NBC News: “An array of state and national progressive groups are already laying the groundwork to attack Republicans for the expected premium increases. Democratic candidates are running ads on health care more than any other issue. And Senate Democrats recently announced plans to devote the month of August to a messaging campaign on health care costs.”

“In focus groups and polls, Democrats are honing a message that they say will link health care problems to voter skepticism of private insurers, the Republican tax bill and donor influence on policies.”

“Republicans who have tried to repeal Obamacare for nearly a decade believe the Trump administration is reviving a politically risky battle with a court filing that could eliminate one of the most popular parts of the law: protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” Politico reports.

“The administration wants a federal court to strike the protections, providing fresh fodder to Democrats who argue that the GOP cannot be trusted to protect Americans’ health insurance months ahead of a midterm election in which health care was already a top issue. It also threatens to shift attention away from the GOP’s message on tax cuts, refocusing it on an Obamacare fight most Republicans wanted to put behind them.”

“The Justice Department will not defend the Affordable Care Act in court, and says it believes the law’s individual mandate — the provision the Supreme Court upheld in 2012 — has become unconstitutional,” Axios reports.

“The Justice Department almost always defends federal laws when they’re challenged in court. Its departure from that norm in this case is a major development — career DOJ lawyers removed themselves from the case as the department announced this shift in its position.”

“The ACA’s individual mandate requires most people to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. The Supreme Court upheld that in 2012 as a valid use of Congress’ taxing power.”