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The GOP’s dream of privatizing parts of Medicare is running up against resistance among Senate Republicans. Interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers reveal they’re not planning to pursue big changes to the popular health care program for seniors — at least not in the first year of the Trump administration. That hesitation starts with the chairman who would lead any overhaul in the Senate. (Haberkorn and Cancryn, 12/2)

Congressional Democrats are warning that Speaker Paul Ryan and President-elect Donald Trump are gunning for Medicare — and they are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of an epic political battle over the government's flagship health program that covers 57 million Americans. It turns out that Republicans, especially in the Senate, are not spoiling for a fight. (Taylor, 12/2)

A senior U.S. Senate Republican warned his party on Thursday against simultaneously overhauling Medicare and the Obamacare health insurance program, saying this would be "biting off more than you can chew." The cautionary comments from Senator Lamar Alexander came after House Speaker Paul Ryan, long an advocate of privatize Medicare, said Republican lawmakers would be discussing reforms of the health insurance program for the elderly with President-elect Donald Trump's administration. (Cornwell, 12/1)

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday defended his plan for overhauling Medicare amid escalating attacks from Democrats. Ryan dismissed the criticism, calling it “the latest wave of Democratic talking points to try and play ‘Mediscare' politics, which is what they typically do every other Tuesday. ”The Speaker has long called for transitioning Medicare to a “premium support” system, where seniors would get a set amount of money from the government to help them buy health coverage from a private insurance company or from traditional Medicare. (Sullivan, 12/1)

Medicare needs to be revamped, House Speaker Paul Ryan emphasized Thursday, as he blasted Democrats for insisting Republicans are planning a war on seniors. (Lightman, 12/1)

The chairman of a key House committee is pledging that congressional Republicans will change Medicare in order to save it. GOP Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, head of the Ways and Means Committee, insisted Thursday that Republicans won't be deterred by the politics, even though Donald Trump won election as president on promises to protect the popular health care program for older Americans, and Democrats are already warning of a "war on seniors." (Werner, 12/2)

Donald Trump was not the kind of presidential candidate who lays out the finer details of his policies on the campaign trail. Now, as the president-elect assembles his government, the people he is choosing to run it provide a clearer picture of the policies his administration will pursue. Among them are a lot of plans to privatize government programs, including Medicare, services provided by the Veterans Affairs department, college loans and infrastructure projects. (Bergengruen, 12/1)

There's less than a week left in the Annual Election Period for Floridians enrolled in Medicare to change their plans. Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 is when Medicare enrollees can change their Medicare plans and prescription drug coverage for the following year to better meet their health and financial needs. (Miller, 12/1)

Republicans have elected Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) the next chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Walden defeated Reps. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), the former committee chairman, in the race for the gavel. Current chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is stepping down from the position due to term limits. (Henry and Wong, 12/1)

Republicans are coalescing around a plan to quickly pass next year a delayed repeal of Obamacare to give them two or three years to craft an alternative. But that plan, designed to create a “cliff” that according to lawmakers and aides would push Congress to get its act together, comes with significant perils. “We’re going to begin immediately to repeal Obamacare and reconciliation is the only way to do it. And I believe we will have 51 Republican senators or 52 to vote for that,” Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs the health committee, told reporters Thursday. (Kapur, 12/1)

Sen. Susan Collins won’t rule out voting for Obamacare repeal next year. The Maine Republican voted against the GOP’s most significant Obamacare repeal measure late last year. But she told POLITICO on Thursday that no one should assume she would do it again if a similar bill comes to a vote next year. (Haberkorn, 12/1)

Congressional Republicans are talking to health insurers about ways to prevent a collapse of the insurance market once they pass an ObamaCare repeal bill. Republicans are planning to pass repeal legislation as soon as January, but plan to delay it from taking effect for a few years to avoid immediate disruption in people’s coverage. The delay would also buy them time to come up with a replacement. (Sullivan, 12/1)

Six years after the biggest overhaul of U.S. health care in half a century, the industry is bracing for more change under President-elect Donald Trump, who wants to tear it apart. As many as 200,000 jobs may be lost in the health-care sector over the next year and employers will slow investment as they wait to see Trump’s clear plan for reform, according to Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist Alec Phillips, in a report last week, forecast “somewhat depressed” job growth in the sector, based on other tumultuous periods. (Matthews, 12/2)

The American health care system faces massive uncertainty heading into 2017. Three years after the rollout of the Obamacare exchanges, more Americans have insurance than ever before, but they’re also having more trouble affording it. The promise of health care reform was a key part of the platform that got Donald Trump elected, but while changes are almost certainly coming, just what they’ll be and how they’ll affect you is still unclear — and likely will be for months if not years. (Braverman, 12/1)

President-elect Donald Trump has proposed expanding health savings accounts as an alternative to the health law. More than 20 million people now have high-deductible health plans that can link to the tax-advantaged accounts, and the average account balance grew by more than a third last year to more than $1,800, according to a new analysis. But consumer advocates warn that health savings accounts would do little to help lower income people who would lose their health insurance if the health law is repealed. (Andrews, 12/2)

One person likened it to looking at a “foggy crystal ball.” Another spoke of changing a tire on a car that’s still moving. The topic: Figuring out a future strategy for the state’s Obamacare exchange at a time when the president-elect and the Republican majority in Congress are plotting the demise of the law it was charged with implementing. President-elect Donald J. Trump and GOP leaders have talked of replacing the health law, but it’s not yet clear what that replacement would look like. (Levin Becker, 12/1)

Calling it a “code blue” medical emergency, more than 100 UC Davis medical students held a rally on the Sacramento campus Thursday night to speak out about their fears for health care under incoming president Donald Trump... Organized over Thanksgiving break, the rally included about a dozen speakers, mostly medical students, who described their concerns as future doctors and as Muslims, minorities, gays, immigrants and victims of sexual assault. (Buck, 12/1)

Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run HHS, is facing an early test: How to repeal and replace Obamacare when congressional Republicans and Trump aren't necessarily on the same page. "It's going to be very difficult," former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast. For instance, Trump's pledge to keep Obamacare's consumer protections raises complicated questions around how to pay for those provisions — "and that's just for starters." (Diamond, 12/1)

The public spotlight may be on President-elect Donald Trump’s conflicts of interests, but his nominee to be secretary of health and human services, Rep. Tom Price, could have conflicts of his own. Price’s wealth pales in comparison with Trump’s. The orthopedic surgeon, first elected to Congress from Georgia in 2004, is ranked as only the 50th richest member of Congress by the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call. But his stock portfolio includes investments in pharmaceutical, medical device, and health insurance companies, the heart of the industries he would be overseeing as secretary. (Kaplan, 12/2)

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has provided detailed instructions to congressional Republicans on how to defend his Cabinet picks, including directions to portray his attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), as a strong defender of civil rights and to play up South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s Indian heritage as evidence of Trump’s purported commitment to a diverse administration. ... [The memo says] "Congressman Price, a renowned physician, has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on quality health care policy, making him the perfect choice to serve in President-elect Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services." (Snell and Viebeck, 12/1)

Donald Trump won the White House pledging to use his business acumen to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs, the poster child for government mismanagement — even if he has to "pick up the phone and fix it myself." But Trump’s leading candidates to run the troubled Cabinet department strike fear in many veteran's advocates, current and former agency officials and members of Congress, who worry that the new administration will aim to gut the VA and privatize many of its services. (Bender, 12/2)

Legal pot's future is in a haze, thanks to President-elect Trump's nomination of a staunchly anti-marijuana lawmaker for attorney general. “Good people don't smoke marijuana," said Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions in an April Senate hearing. (Hughes, 12/1)

Anthem’s $54 billion acquisition of Cigna would create $3 billion in annual savings in the national accounts market. Nearly all of that money would be passed on to customers through cheaper rates, economist Mark Israel testified Thursday at the antitrust trial challenging the deal. Compass Lexecon’s Israel is arguably Anthem’s most important witness. He's providing expert validation to the insurer’s key arguments for why the deal won’t hurt competition in the market for large employers, which is the focus of the first phase of the trial. (Demko, 12/1)

Anthem Inc. could face a penalty of about $3 billion from the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association if it fails to derive the bulk of its nationwide revenue from Blue-branded products after acquiring Cigna Corp., according to testimony from an Anthem executive during a U.S. antitrust trial in Washington. Twenty-three percent of Cigna’s domestic revenue would need to be rebranded to comply with rules of the BCBS association, said Steve Schlegel, Anthem’s vice president for corporate development, under questioning Wednesday by a Justice Department lawyer. (Harris, 11/30)

As the first part of the antitrust trial on a proposed merger of health insurers Anthem and Cigna is wrapping up, a similar challenge to Aetna’s plan to merge with Humana is about to begin. While both are the result of lawsuits to block the mergers filed by the U.S. Justice Department on the same day in July, the trials will be much different. (Radelat, 12/2)

Washington’s insurance regulator said Thursday that Zenefits can no longer offer its human resources software for free in the state, another setback for the embattled health-benefits brokerage that has sought to move past regulatory violations. The order from Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler strikes at the heart of Zenefits’s business model, which offers free human-resources software to small businesses so that it can collect commissions when the companies use Zenefits to sign up for health benefits. (Winkler, 12/1)

Despite losing a milestone abortion case at the United States Supreme Court this past summer, Texas threw down another stumbling block this week. It will require facilities that provide abortions to pay for the cremation or burial of fetal remains, rather than dispose of them as biological medical waste. It is the latest attempt by abortion opponents to make it more burdensome for women to get abortions — by creating new rules and laws that make it more difficult for providers to stay in business. (Alvarez, 12/1)

With Texas set to implement rules requiring the burial or cremation of fetal remains, it's not just health care providers who are anxious about the recently adopted requirements. Funeral directors in the state are joining the chorus of medical professionals and reproductive rights activists who have raised concerns about the rules. Though it hasn't taken a formal position on the requirements, the Texas Funeral Directors Association says it’s concerned about how they’ll affect the families they serve and the costs associated with compliance. (Ura, 12/2)

Buoyed by Republicans' expanded majorities in the Legislature and Donald Trump's presidential victory, abortion opponents in Arkansas are pushing for bans on a commonly used second trimester procedure, terminating a pregnancy based on the fetus' sex and other restrictions next year. A Republican lawmaker plans to file legislation next week to prohibit dilation and evacuation, or "D&E," a second trimester procedure that abortion supporters say is the safest and most common. (12/1)

Ohio has revoked the operating license of one of the state's few remaining abortion clinics on the grounds that it failed to obtain a required transfer agreement with a nearby hospital for emergencies. Women's Med Center of Dayton has 15 days to appeal the order, which was signed Wednesday by Rick Hodges, the director of the Department of Health. The clinic said it will do so. (12/1)

Although President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to defund Planned Parenthood as long as it provides abortions, several of Maryland’s Democratic lawmakers said that despite their party’s minority status in Congress, they will fight every effort to do so. “This will be an ongoing battle,” Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic congressman who was elected to the Senate last month, said in an interview with Capital News Service. “It’s unfortunate that in the 21st century we’re still having to wage this battle, but we will fight tooth and nail to prevent Donald Trump and the Republicans from turning back the clock on women’s rights.” (Haq and Tonic, 12/1)

Reproductive rights activists opposed to Donald Trump’s nominee for health secretary have hit upon a potent rallying cry: The cost of birth control. The campaign stems from a remark made back in 2012 by Georgia congressman Tom Price, who this week was tapped to run Trump’s Department of Heath and Human Services. Back then, Price had joined other Republicans in a fierce fight to block an Obamacare mandate that insurers give women free access to contraception. (Robbins, 12/2)

Protests and social media diatribes aren't the only ways anxious Illinoisans are responding to an impending Donald Trump presidency. At least one organization has seen more Illinois women seeking birth control since Trump's election. Planned Parenthood of Illinois said it saw an 82 percent increase in the number of women making appointments online for intrauterine devices last month after the election compared with the previous November — an increase of about 200 appointments. After the election, appointments made online for all kinds of birth control services spiked 40 percent over the same time last year, said Julie Lynn, manager of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Illinois, which operates 16 centers. The organization's contact center also has been fielding thousands of additional calls, she said. (Schencker, 12/1)

More than half of drug arrests in the city involve out-of-state residents, Cuddy said. The department does not have statistics on how often children witness drug use.In Lawrence, overdose deaths climbed from six in 2012 to 25 in 2015, according to state statistics. The 2015 number could increase as the medical examiner confirms additional cases. (Allen, 12/1)

The Senate is scheduled to take up a bill next week that would send $1 billion to states battling the opioid addiction crisis. The federal dollars would be divvied up among states based on per-capita drug overdoses. By that measure, New Hampshire ranks third nationally. The funding would help strengthen the state's growing but still inadequate network of services, including prevention, early detox, long-term housing and mental health treatment, says Tym Rourke, Chair of the Governor's Commission on Substance Abuse. (Rodolico, 12/1)

Lawmakers in the U.S. House have overwhelmingly passed a wide-ranging health care reform bill that sets aside $1 billion to be split among states like New Hampshire battling the heroin and opioid addiction crisis. The bipartisan legislation sailed through on a 392-26 vote Wednesday, and includes everything from an overhaul of how new drugs are approved to nearly $5 billion for medical research. (Ganley and Brindley, 12/1)

The Obama administration agreed that the increasing supply of fentanyl on the street is a major challenge and said agencies are doing a lot. But reducing the supply is complicated. ... “Synthetic drugs are a real winner because they are easy to make, and they’re cheap to produce,” said Kara McDonald, director of policy, planning and coordination at the international narcotics and law enforcement bureau of the U.S. Department of State.“They’re not dependent on a season or the weather like a plant-based drug,” McDonald said. “And with the distribution system — through mail order — they can be delivered directly to the door in some cases. Like a pizza. (Bebinger, 12/2)

Emergency rooms would have to notify an adult next of kin when they treat someone for an unintentional overdose if Fort Pierce Democratic Representative Larry Lee, Jr., has his way. (Ash, 12/1)

Fulton County’s rate of opioid overdose deaths was more than double the national average in 2014, newly released figures show.Fulton CountyAnd the county — which contains most of the city of Atlanta as well as some of Georgia’s most affluent suburbs — had a higher rate of HIV diagnoses than all but one of 28 large cities studied, according to statistics released this week by the Big Cities Health Coalition project. (Miller, 12/1)

San Francisco’s top public health official on Wednesday endorsed safe injection sites where intravenous drug users could legally shoot drugs, giving the controversial idea a big boost and setting up a potential clash with Mayor Ed Lee, who has come out strongly against them. (Green, 12/1)

Forget where you just left your car keys? A magnetic pulse might help you remember. Some dormant memories can be revived by delivering a pulse of magnetic energy to the right brain cells, researchers report Thursday in the journal Science. The finding is part of a study that suggests the brain's "working memory" system is far less volatile than scientists once thought. (Hamilton, 12/1)

Homeopathy has been around since the 1700s, but despite having devoted followers, there is no scientific evidence that it works. Soon, packages for homeopathic products might say just that. On Nov. 15, the Federal Trade Commission released an enforcement policy statement about labeling for over-the-counter homeopathic products. Homeopathic treatments have increasingly been marketed in drug store and supermarket aisles, alongside Food and Drug Administration-approved over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Mucinex. (Ross, 12/2)

Inside the walls of a geriatric hospital in France, time stands still. Light falls across two stockinged feet on a bed. The fading floral pattern on a swath of wallpaper is interrupted by an unused corkboard. And between these scenes of stillness, residents approach a pair of locked doors with modest curiosity, expectation and even anger. Swedish photographer Maja Daniels says those doors, which were locked to prevent the residents from wandering, were crucial early in the project. (Rizzo, 12/1)

As the state lingers in the grip of its ongoing opioid epidemic, Virginia’s top health official is warning that the state soon may also be dealing with skyrocketing rates of hepatitis C and HIV. During a Virginia Board of Health meeting Thursday, the state health commissioner, Dr. Marissa Levine, said that as opioid use continues, the two deadly infections “will rear their ugly heads.” (Demeria, 12/1)

A blood treatment that was popular 75 years ago but faded away when antibiotics came along may be making a comeback with the increasing popularity of “integrative medicine.” Historically called “ultraviolet blood irradiation” (UBI), the treatment appeals to alternative practitioners, especially those who give regular IV treatments for energy boosts and “detoxification.” (Gentry, 12/1)

Elba Acosta was distressed to learn that her morning habit of coffee and a smoke inside her New York City Housing Authority apartment will be banned under new federal rules prohibiting smoking in public housing. “I have my black coffee and a cigarette at home,” Acosta, 67, said Thursday outside the Chelsea-Elliot Houses. “I mean, that’s my freedom. You do whatever you want to do because it’s your body. The government has no business in your personal choice.” (Matthews, 12/1)

Autism advocates say they will push for expansion next year on Georgia’s recent mandate to guarantee insurance coverage of children 6 and under, including a call to raise or remove the age cap. (Torres, 12/1)

The public agency responsible for analyzing data about the Massachusetts health care market is eliminating dozens of jobs to contend with $45 million in planned budget cuts. The Center for Health Information and Analysis, or CHIA, will reduce spending over five years, part of a political compromise struck earlier this year to avoid a ballot question about hospital payments. The deal allowed the state to take money from CHIA to help fund community hospitals. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/2)

Over the past two decades, U.S. hospitals have been moving steadily toward establishing smoke-free campuses in a bid to promote healthier lifestyles among their patients and their staff. But the movement has had a secondary benefit — a reduction in the number of hospital fires. According to a new report issued by the National Fire Protection Association, smoking materials accounted for an average of 50 fires per year in hospitals and hospices from 2009 to 2013. That’s down from 100 fires per year from 2006 to 2010, and 3,800 fires per year from 1980 to 1984, when nearly half of smoking-related fires occurred in patient rooms. (Hawryluk, 12/1)

Maryland's hospitals in the past year provided nearly $1.6 billion in services other than the medical care traditionally offered in emergency rooms, operating rooms, or hospital beds, according to the Maryland Hospital Association. The hospital association said its members spent 10 percent of their operating expenses on non-traditional services, or community benefits, such as chronic disease management programs, free health education and other public health programs. (McDaniels, 12/1)

For the third time this year, surprise inspections by state investigators have revealed serious shortcomings in patient care at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. After the latest site inspection, in mid-October, investigators said the North Philadelphia hospital did not do enough to determine why four patients who underwent surgery suffered some kind of treatment-related harm during their stay. One of the patients died, though the cause of death was not revealed in the inspection report. (Avril and Purcell, 12/1)

Secretary of State William F. Galvin on Thursday filed civil fraud charges against an investment adviser with Boston-based LPL Financial for allegedly selling costly variable annuities to retirees and health care workers, reaping $1.8 million in commissions. The adviser, Roger S. Zullo, allegedly sold unsuitable annuity investments to at least 11 clients, generating large payouts for himself and the brokerage firm. (Healy, 12/1)

Reading Trust Fund Commissioners recently announced the launch of a new Caregiver Respite Program, which provides care for Reading residents by certified home health aides through Hallmark Health VNA and Hospice for up to three hours per month. The new initiative is part of the Reading Response Program. (Buote, 12/1)

With a host of federal health programs on the line with the incoming Trump administration, some public health experts in the Baltimore region are both bracing for big changes and offering their take on how to better spend taxpayer funds to improve outcomes for millions of Americans. ...A panel of policy experts largely supportive of the health programs gathered this week at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and said large groups of people could be affected in the new year as GOP lawmakers in charge of the Congress and the White House make use a budgetary process to alter programs. (Cohn, 12/1)

Hennepin County officials unveiled a plan Thursday to reduce the spread of HIV, starting with outreach to residents who have the infection but are not receiving treatment. Last year, 168 county residents were diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS — a number that has been fairly constant for nearly two decades. (Howatt, 12/1)

California health officials on Thursday confirmed the state’s first death of this year’s influenza season and reminded everyone to get a flu shot before more people get sick. “As this unfortunate case illustrates, the flu can be deadly and causes thousands of fatalities each year in the United States,” said Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health. “Fortunately, people can get vaccinated to help keep them from getting sick and spreading the flu to others.” (Karlamangla, 12/1)

California public health officials on Thursday announced the first flu-related fatality of the 2016-17 flu season. The victim, whom the department would identify only as a person under age 65, died in Los Angeles County. (Seipel, 12/1)

Hoping to curb the spread of the virus that causes AIDS, Hennepin County officials Thursday launched a new effort to contact some 2,000 county residents who are HIV-positive but who've dropped out of care or never received it. Early and sustained medical treatment is now considered the key to stopping the spread of HIV because drugs have proven so effective. (Benson, 12/1)

A South Florida appeals court Wednesday said an $18.5 million damages award against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was excessive in a lawsuit filed by the daughter of a woman who died of lung cancer. A panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal ordered that a circuit judge consider reducing the amount or hold a new trial on damages. The Palm Beach County case was filed against the tobacco company by Gwendolyn Odom, whose mother, Juanita Thurston, died of lung cancer in 1993 after smoking cigarettes. (12/1)

Zero. That’s the number of new HIV infections California officials are aiming for under a comprehensive initiative released this fall. The “Getting to Zero” plan, intended to guide the state’s AIDS policy from 2017 to 2021, is designed to boost surveillance, increase access to care and eliminate disparities in treatment. (Korry, 12/2)

A Petersburg man was treated for the wrong medical condition and then died after jailers strapped him to a restraint chair at the Richmond City Justice Center in January, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court. (Kleiner and Burnell Evans, 12/1)

Minnesota will allow the use of medical marijuana to treat people suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, state health officials said Thursday. The Minnesota Department of Health had been weighing requests to expand the use of medical cannabis for PTSD, autism, arthritis, depression and other conditions. (Feshir, 12/1)

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is being added to the list of conditions covered by Minnesota’s medical cannabis program, effective next August. The expansion, announced Thursday by Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger, adds an option for the estimated 8 percent of Minnesotans who, at some point in their lives, will suffer PTSD, a condition that can cause people to relive the emotion of traumatic experiences through panic attacks, nightmares and severe anxiety. (Olson, 12/1)

A petition initiative seeking a vote to decriminalize marijuana possession in Kansas City has enough signatures to qualify for an election ballot.City Clerk Marilyn Sanders said Thursday that election authorities had counted more than 2,000 valid signatures of registered voters, more than the 1,708 required to place a citizen-led initiative on a Kansas City ballot. (Horsley, 12/1)

Can a decision aid intervention about goals of care improve communication, decision-making, and palliative care for patients with advanced dementia? ... In this randomized trial of 302 nursing home residents with advanced dementia, family decision makers reported better end-of-life communication with clinicians. Clinicians were more likely to address palliative care in treatment plans, use Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment, and less likely to send patients to the hospital. (Hanson et al., 11/28)

In this cohort study evaluating students with asthma, higher mouse allergen exposure at school was significantly associated with both increased asthma symptoms and lower lung function, independent of allergic sensitization and allergen exposure in the home. ... The school environment is an important contributor to childhood asthma morbidity, and future school-based environmental interventions may benefit all children with asthma. (Sheehan et al., 11/21)

The report covers the health care cost and utilization trends for Americans younger than age 65 and covered by employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) for the years 2012 through 2015. ... In 2015, spending per capita for the ESI population grew by 4.6% over the previous year, to $5,141 per person .... This growth was faster than previous years’ growth: 3.0% growth in 2013 and 2.6% growth in 2014. ... In every year studied, the biggest driver of per capita spending growth was increasing prices. However, in some years increases in the utilization of services also played a role in spending growth. (11/22)

Most people at some point in their lives need to take time away from work to deal with a serious personal or family illness or to care for a new child. In contrast to almost every other developed nation in the world, the United States has no federal law that guarantees paid family or medical leave, whether that leave is to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member, or to address one's own serious health condition. ... President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign surprised many in the Republican Party by proposing a modest paid maternity leave policy. Republicans in Congress might oppose guaranteed paid leave in any form or promote their own reform. (Findlay, 11/21)

Policymakers, health care providers, and policy analysts continue to call for “delivery system reform”—changes to the way health care is provided and paid for in the United States—to address concerns about rising costs, quality of care, and inefficient spending. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established several initiatives to identify and test new health care payment models that focus on these issues. Many of these ACA programs apply specifically to Medicare, the social insurance program that provides coverage to 57 million Americans age 65 and older and younger adults with permanent disabilities. This Primer describes the framework and concepts of three payment models that CMS is currently testing and implementing within traditional Medicare—medical homes, ACOs, and bundled payments. (Baseman et al., 11/17)

Donald Trump’s choice of GOP Rep. Tom Price as secretary of health and human services is being widely interpreted as a sign that he is likely to proceed with plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and convert Medicare into a “premium support” scheme along the lines that Paul Ryan has long championed. Trump did repeatedly promise to repeal Obamacare. But Medicare is a different matter. Trump promised countless times not to cut Medicare and repeatedly suggested he would leave the program as it is. (Greg Sargent, 12/1)

As President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress decide the future of the Affordable Care Act, they ought to pay close attention to a survey published on Thursday that shows that a large majority of the country supports the law’s most important provisions. Republican lawmakers and candidates have portrayed the 2010 law as an unmitigated disaster that must be repealed. (Vikas Bajaj, 12/1)

The left is in a tizzy about what happens to health-care policy under Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Donald Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary. Price’s wish list, after all, reads like a liberal nightmare. (Catherine Rampell, 12/1)

After campaigning on a platform long on platitudes and short on specifics, President-elect Donald Trump this week started to reveal what he has in store for the nation’s health care system – and many Californians aren’t going to like what they hear. Trump, who promised to replace Obamacare with “something terrific,” chose Rep. Tom Price, a tea party Republican from suburban Atlanta and one of Obamacare’s fiercest critics, as his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. (Sal Rosselli, 12/1)

Yes, the white working class is about to be betrayed. The evidence of that coming betrayal is obvious in the choice of an array of pro-corporate, anti-labor figures for key positions. In particular, the most important story of the week — seriously, people, stop focusing on Trump Twitter — was the selection of Tom Price, an ardent opponent of Obamacare and advocate of Medicare privatization, as secretary of health and human services. This choice probably means that the Affordable Care Act is doomed — and Mr. Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters will be among the biggest losers. (Paul Krugman, 12/2)

This week, the American Medical Association promptly endorsed U.S. Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to serve as health and human services secretary. The news filled me with so much disgust that I resigned my membership. (Carolyn Sax, 12/1)

Why aren’t Arizona’s Millennials signing up for the Affordable Care Act? That’s what the Obama administration is wondering now that open enrollment is underway in Arizona and across the nation. My generation is the key to the Affordable Care Act’s success, and yet so far we’ve steered clear for three straight years. (David Barnes, 12/1)

Much attention and speculation surrounds the incoming Trump administration and the new Congress, but it’s important to remember that the current Congress still has work to do. Before the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, more than 2,500 people will die from an opioid overdose. More than half of these preventable deaths will be due to prescription opioids such as morphine or oxycodone. Nearly 40,000 others will visit the emergency room due to misusing prescription opioids. (Newt Gingrich and Patrick Kennedy, 12/1)

Leading research and advocacy organizations are sounding alarms on stagnating and even rising infection rates in settings where adolescent girls and young women bear the greatest burden of new infections. But new prevention methods on the horizon, called multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs), offer protection against HIV as well as an opportunity to simultaneously engage in family planning and reduce other sexual and reproductive health risks with discreet tools that are user-controlled. (Bethany Young Holt, 12/1)

Deficiencies in affordable housing, education and employment, as well as access to health care and its excessive cost, are critical factors driving unrest, preventable illness and premature death. But partnerships have the potential to coordinate Wisconsin’s intrinsic academic and community resources to address these deficiencies. But promoting health for everyone requires more than sufficient health care resources. (Richard Rieselbach, Byron Crouse, Cynthia Haq, Tom Jackson, Greg Nycz and Patrick Remington, 12/1)

The current excitement over the potential for stem-cell therapy to improve patient outcomes or even cure diseases is understandable. We at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) share this excitement. However, to ensure that this emerging field fulfills its promise to patients, we must first understand its risks and benefits and develop therapeutic approaches based on sound science. Without a commitment to the principles of adequate evidence generation that have led to so much medical progress, we may never see stem-cell therapy reach its full potential. (Peter W. Marks, Celia M. Witten and Robert M. Califf, 11/30)

John Hancock got it wrong, and now federal employees and retirees are paying the price. A very high price. Their cost for coverage in the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) skyrocketed this year by an average of 83 percent, with some taking a 126 percent hit. The reasons for the huge increases? The John Hancock Life and Health Insurance Co. made one error after another in its calculations. (Joe Davidson, 12/1)

Since the early 2000’s, Alzheimer’s drugs have faced a failure rate of over 99 percent. Even so, Solanezumab demonstrated the best of science, as Lilly’s researchers worked tirelessly for years with the goal of improving patients’ lives and our understanding of dementia’s underlying causes. Alas, failure was the outcome once again, but these ongoing efforts emphasize the need for a breakthrough – despite the odds – to address the severe social and economic consequences of Alzheimer’s. (Michael Hodin, 12/1)

Finally, the state cracked down on a shoddy group home operator serving adults with disabilities. The Illinois Department of Human Services has yanked the license of Disability Services of Illinois following a Tribune investigation into health and safety violations — some resulting in deaths — at group homes statewide. (12/1)

More than 30 years ago, as the AIDS epidemic exploded, the nation’s blood banks banned donations from men who had sex with other men. The logic was sound at the time. Tests of the era couldn’t adequately detect HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. As a result, thousands of people unwittingly contracted HIV from tainted blood during transfusions. Banning donations from gay men was a drastic step, but necessary to protect the nation’s blood supply. (12/1)

As of last week, voters in California and seven other states have passed ballot initiatives to allow for-profit companies to produce, distribute and sell non-medical marijuana. With more than 65 million people living in states that have passed marijuana legalization, and a Gallup poll showing that 60% of the country supports legalizing marijuana use, national legalization may seem inevitable. (Beau Kilmer, 12/1)