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The Trump administration is bound by a federal court decision to suspend billions of dollars in ObamaCare payments, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma said Thursday. “We really are in a tough spot,” Verma told reporters. “I think that there’s been a lot of discussion about whether the Trump administration is making a decision. We’re not making a decision. The court has told us what to do here … at the end of the day, we have to abide by the court’s ruling.” (Weixel, 7/12)

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would chip away at ObamaCare, including a measure that would temporarily repeal the law's employer mandate. The bill sponsored by GOP Reps. Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) would suspend penalties for the employer mandate for 2015 through 2019 and delay implementation of the tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans for another year, pushing it back to 2022. (Hellmann, 7/12)

Startup insurer Bright Health is doubling the number of states where the Minneapolis-­based health plan competes — an expansion plan that fits with a broader trend of carriers seeing a shot at growth in the individual market. Bright Health, which already competes in parts of Alabama, Arizona and Colorado, announced plans Wednesday to expand into portions of New York, Ohio and Tennessee. (Snowbeck, 7/11)