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White House advisers, scrambling to create a health-care agenda for President Trump to promote on the campaign trail, are meeting at least daily with the aim of rolling out a measure every two to three weeks until the 2020 election. One of the initiatives would allow states to import lower-priced drugs from Canada and other countries and another would bar Medicare from paying more than any other country for prescription drugs, according to two senior administration officials and lobbyists — controversial ideas in line with Democratic proposals. Yet it remains unclear whether the administration has the legal authority to execute some of these policies without Congress’s approval. (Abutaleb and Dawsey, 7/31)

President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order next week on Medicare and moving ahead with allowing some drug imports from Canada, part of the administration’s effort to engineer a response to Democratic proposals that candidates say would expand health coverage to all Americans. The executive order would aim to strengthen Medicare for 44 million Americans and portray the president as defending it against Democrats who want to expand it nationwide under their Medicare for All strategy, a White House official said Wednesday. (Armour, Restuccia and Lucey, 7/31)

Requiring hospitals to display their insurer-negotiated prices online likely won't lower healthcare spending in the near term. But economists and other experts say it's a worthwhile experiment in bringing transparency to one of the few industries in which patients often don't know the cost of a service before they buy it. The Trump administration earlier this week issued a proposed rule that would force most hospitals in the country to post on their websites the closely guarded rates for certain healthcare services that they work out with insurance companies behind closed doors. The outcry from hospital and insurance trade associations was swift. (Livingston, 7/31)