As health departments in multiple states battle some of the largest measles outbreaks in decades, there has been radio silence from the White House, STAT reports.

“President Trump’s absence in the national conversation about the measles outbreaks has prompted some debate in the public health community about whether he should be playing a more active role. For some observers, though, the question is not whether public officials should be supporting vaccinations, but rather whether a president who has previously spread false information linking vaccines and autism is the right messenger.”

Washington state Sen. Maureen Walsh (R) “has drawn the wrath of state nurses after she said on the floor of the Senate that some nurses may spend a considerable part of their day playing cards,” the Spokesman-Review reports.

“The Washington State Nurses Association posted a blog about Walsh’s comments on its website, drawing so many readers that the site crashed for a time on Friday.”

A new CBO report finds that more than 1 million Americans have lost health coverage since 2016.

Vox: “The report — which came out within hours of the Mueller report on Thursday and so didn’t get much attention — follows other studies, all suggesting that America’s uninsured rate is rising under President Trump, whose administration has passed new rules that make it more difficult to enroll in coverage.”

“Most Republicans are rejecting Democrat-led state bills to tighten childhood immunization laws in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in two decades, alarming public health experts who fear the nation could become as divided over vaccines as it is over global warming,” Politico reports.

“Democrats in six states — Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Washington, New York and Maine — have authored or co-sponsored bills to make it harder for parents to avoid vaccinating their school-age children, and mostly faced GOP opposition. Meanwhile in West Virginia and Mississippi, states with some of the nation’s strictest vaccination laws, Republican lawmakers have introduced measures to expand vaccine exemptions, although it’s not yet clear how much traction they have.”

“A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a Trump administration request to expedite oral arguments in a case challenging the legality of the Affordable Care Act,” CNN reports.

“The new time frame — with arguments in early July — means that the fate of Obamacare could come before the Supreme Court next term, with an opinion rendered by June of 2020 in the heart of the presidential campaign.”

Sarah Kliff: “Top White House officials are making big promises about President Trump’s announcement that the GOP ‘will soon be known as the party of health care.’ But the detailed plan that Trump laid out in his budget a few weeks ago doesn’t deliver on them.”

“When the Congressional Budget Office looked at the proposed policy, it estimated the plan would cause millions to lose coverage.”

“The plan would also give states the option to let insurers to return to discriminating against patients with preexisting conditions and allow states to give insurers flexibility in choosing what gets covered (and not covered), like maternity care.”

“President Trump promised a new plan to replace Obamacare. But the four Senate Republicans he tapped for the job aren’t jumping at the opportunity,” Politico reports.

“Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) says any new plan has to come from the White House — and that he had no warning Trump planned to make him part of the health policy group. Mitt Romney (R-UT) won’t say more than he and colleagues are ‘working on health care thoughts.’ John Barrasso (R-WY), when asked about the Republican plan, turned the question back on the opposition, saying, ‘Democrats want to go to the complete government takeover of health care.’ And Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the fourth member of Trump’s team, hasn’t committed to anything more than conversations with colleagues’ about health care affordability.”

Asked how much trust they placed in President Trump or congressional Republicans to protect or improve the health care system, 58% of voters said “not much” or “none at all,” according to the latest Politico/Morning Consult poll.

By contrast, a 53% majority of the electorate said they had “a lot” or “some” trust in Democrats on the same question.

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told President Trump in a conversation Monday that the Senate will not be moving comprehensive health care legislation before the 2020 election, despite the president asking Senate Republicans to do that in a meeting last week,” The Hill reports.

“McConnell said he made clear to the president that Senate Republicans will work on bills to keep down the cost of health care, but that they will not work on a comprehensive package to replace the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration is trying to strike down in court. “

President Trump tweeted that Republicans are developing a “really great” health care plan that will be “far less expensive and much more usable” than Obamacare.

But he says a vote on the plan “will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate and win back the House.”

Jonathan Swan: “A major misconception on Capitol Hill right now is the notion that Mick Mulvaney is behind President Trump’s decision to back a lawsuit to demolish the Affordable Care Act.”

“After a week of talking to sources who’ve discussed the matter privately with Trump, it’s clear that this health care push is coming from the president himself. These people say Trump thinks it’s a great idea to try to brand the GOP as ‘the party of health care’ by backing the controversial litigation and pushing for legislative change.”

“Trump has privately said he thinks the lawsuit to strike down the Affordable Care Act will probably fail in the courts.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway maintained on Fox News that Republicans are “working on a plan” for replacing the Affordable Care Act, days after President Trump surprised members on both sides of the aisle when he declared that the Republican Party “will soon be known as the party of health care,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Conway: “There is a plan. We’ve been working on a plan for a long time. And we hope that Congress would come along.”

Host Chris Wallace responded: “Right, nine years, but you’ve never actually come up with a whole plan.”

USA Today: “White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said that he could guarantee that Americans would not lose their health care insurance coverage if the Affordable Care Act ends up being struck down in its most recent court challenge.”

“Republicans have no intention of heeding President Trump’s urgent demands for a new health-care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, fearing the potential political damage that such a proposal could cause in 2020 and hoping he will soon drop the idea,” the Washington Post reports.

“Not only is there no such health-care overhaul in the works on Capitol Hill — there are no plans to make such a plan.”