�鶹Ů��

The White House acknowledged that Mr. Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, was in genuine jeopardy. Mr. Trump has vowed to repeal it as one of his first acts in office, and a Republican-controlled Congress will prod him to do so. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Obama would lobby Mr. Trump to keep it in place — an effort that suggests Mr. Obama believes that Mr. Trump can be persuaded on certain issues. (Landler and Davis, 11/9)

Congressional Republicans, stunned by their own good, if complicated, fortune, said on Wednesday that they would move quickly next year on an agenda that merges with President-elect Donald J. Trump’s, repealing the Affordable Care Act, cutting taxes, confirming conservative judges, shrinking government programs and rolling back regulations. (Steinhauer, 11/9)

The Affordable Care Act transformed the medical system, expanding coverage to millions, injecting billions in tax revenue, changing insurance rules and launching ambitious experiments in quality and efficiency. Less of that might disappear under President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to “repeal and replace Obamacare” than many believe, say policy analysts. Republicans promising change might not quickly admit it, but in some respects Obamacare’s replacement may look something like the original. (Hancock and Luthra, 11/9)

Republicans will not have the 60 votes in the Senate needed to pass most major legislation, but through a parliamentary procedure called budget “reconciliation,” they have already done a dry run to gut the existing law without facing a Democratic filibuster. ... Uprooting them would be a complex political and logistical challenge. Insurers now accept the idea that they cannot deny insurance, or charge higher prices, to people who have been ill. (Weisman, 11/9)

Without 60 votes in the Senate to get around procedural hurdles, Republicans couldn’t repeal the whole law in one shot but could take out pillars of it using a budget maneuver that requires only a simple majority. One target would be subsidies that blunt the cost of premiums for people who get coverage on the health law’s exchanges, said Timothy Jost, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Without a transition plan, 85% of exchange consumers who get subsidies would face the full cost of their premiums, prompting a major drop-off in participation. The employer mandate that requires many companies with 50 or more full-time workers to provide health insurance also would likely go. (Armour and Radnofsky, 11/9)

After six years, the health overhaul is largely implemented. The fourth open-enrollment period is currently under way and due to conclude Jan. 31. Many conservative health policy experts haven’t hid their disdain for Mr. Trump’s campaign, leaving open the question of who would provide the technical support for a dismantling effort. In particular, Mr. Trump’s repeal could face opposition from Republicans in states that expanded Medicaid, the federal-state health coverage for low-income people, and industry groups that heavily profit from the law. (Armour and Radnofsky, 11/9)

Shell-shocked Democrats on Capitol Hill are preparing to make a fight for Obamacare their top priority in the opening days of the Trump administration, with leading advocacy groups ready to wage “total war” to defend President Barack Obama’s universal health care program and his domestic policy legacy. "We've got the battle of our lifetime ahead of us,” Ron Pollack, executive director of advocacy group Families USA, said the day after Donald Trump was elected on a pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which now the law that covers 22 million people. “We're going to have a huge number of organizations from all across the country that will participate in this effort." (Haberkorn and Demko, 11/10)

“The clock is ticking, because Republicans appear to be saying health care is going to be the first item on their list with repeal of the ACA being the banner for that,” said Ron Pollack, Families USA’s executive director for three decades. “This will be the most intense fight I remember. . . . One should never underestimate an extraordinary backlash that occurs when people have something that they really value and it is taken away.” (Goldstein, 11/9)

Families USA's Ron Pollack is vowing "total war" to save Obamacare. AEI's Jim Capretta helped shepherd House Speaker Paul Ryan's proposal to replace it. (Diamond, 11/9)

Promising to repeal the most sweeping overhaul of the US health care system in a generation is one thing. But how? Here are three questions Republicans will have to answer. (Scott, 11/9)

After six controversial years, the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, may be on the way out, thanks to the GOP sweep of the presidency and both houses of Congress Tuesday. “There’s no question Obamacare is dead,” said insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski. “The only question is whether it will be cremated or buried.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed Wednesday that repealing the law is something that’s “pretty high on our agenda. (Rovner, 11/9)

During his campaign, Trump proposed a series of measures that he said will allow people to buy affordable health insurance policies outside of the Obamacare exchanges. Those measures include promoting tax-free health savings accounts that might help individuals save money to pay for health care costs and allowing people to deduct the cost of their premiums on their personal income tax returns. Trump has said he also wants to allow insurers to sell policies across state lines to boost competition. Trump could alter the Obamacare exchanges to promote high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts to get a result similar to what he's looking for. (Kodjak, 11/9)

Trump clamped onto the party line on healthcare early in his candidacy and has called the ACA a “catastrophe.” He has been less clear, however, on what he would put in place of the ACA, citing vague conservative stalwart ideas such as creating high-risk pools, allowing insurance to be sold across state lines and expanding health savings accounts. There is little evidence any of these efforts would show success in improving quality or reducing healthcare costs. (Aguilar and Muchmore, 11/9)

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agree that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is a top priority under the incoming Trump administration, but appear not to be in full agreement on how to do so. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday suggested Congress would seek to use a budget tool known as reconciliation to repeal the Affordable Care Act under the incoming Trump administration. But at a Capitol Hill press conference later in the day, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would not commit to using the process to repeal the law. (McIntire, 11/9)

GOP lawmakers have introduced their own reforms over the years. They've proposed barring some people who today qualify for Medicaid, offering less generous insurance subsidies and making it harder again for people with pre-existing conditions to get insured. (Gorenstein, 11/9)

Capitol Hill Republicans who declined to back President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign are touting the party’s newfound ability to repeal the Affordable Care Act. With Trump’s win and Republican sweeps to maintain control of the Senate and the House, the party now has a path forward to repeal the law, following through on a years-long vow. Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who fiercely pushed back against the Trump candidacy, mentioned helping to repeal and replace the law in statements congratulating Trump on Wednesday. (McIntire, 11/9)

Last January, congressional Republicans finally succeeded in getting a bill to President Obama’s desk that would repeal the Affordable Care Act and pave the way for major GOP replacement ideas. Obama, of course, vetoed the bill and allowed his long-embattled signature health insurance plan to continue. (Pianin, 11/9)

Donald J. Trump’s upset win all but guarantees that big changes are ahead for health care in America. But Massachusetts’ groundbreaking reforms of a decade ago will probably shield the state from too much upheaval. ... “We are probably better insulated from any state in the country to federal changes -- not completely insulated, but better insulated -- partly because our reforms predated the Affordable Care Act, and partly because there is a political consensus in the state that our reforms are working well,” said Andrew Dreyfus, chief executive of the state’s largest health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/9)

The election of Donald Trump raises new uncertainty not only for the nearly 421,000 Marylanders who now have insurance under the Affordable Care Act, but also the state's unique cost-control agreement with Medicare. Under the lucrative agreement with the federal government, the state sets uniform prices for hospital care, which means Medicare pays more in Maryland than elsewhere. In exchange, the state's hospitals must keep health costs down. But they could lose millions of dollars if the agreement, which is being renegotiated now and expires in two years, went away. (McDaniels, 11/9)

Though President-elect Donald Trump wants Congress to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, legal scholars say it is likely that some popular provisions of the act will remain. But the mandate that people buy insurance and the federal subsidies that offset premiums are likely "in the crosshairs," University of Pennsylvania law professor Tom Baker said Wednesday morning. Ultimately, that would means less money to pay for the popular parts of President Obama's signature health insurance program, such as the requirements that insurers cover preexisting conditions and that children be allowed to stay on their parents' policies through age 25. (Avril, 11/9)

With Republican control of the U.S. House, Senate and White House solidified under a presumptive Donald Trump administration, the 1.2 million Texans with health insurance under President Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act face an uncertain future. (Walters, 11/9)

Illinois consumers battered by higher health insurance prices and dwindling options in recent weeks woke up Wednesday with a new concern: Will their Obamacare coverage vanish altogether amid Donald Trump's presidency? Trump, elected president Tuesday, has promised to erase President Barack Obama's signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act. He's said he will repeal and replace it immediately, calling the law "a catastrophe." (Schencker, 11/9)

Come January, the nation will have a president and Congress that have pledged repeatedly to repeal Obamacare. But in the meantime, there’s a sign-up period going on for people to buy coverage through the insurance exchanges created by the health law. So what happens now? (Levin Becker, 11/9)

“Obamacare is done.” That was the glum prediction late Tuesday night from Democratic political consultant James Carville, longtime ally of Hillary Clinton, as he noted the electoral math propelling Republican Donald Trump to victory in the presidential contest. ... Overall, what does the Trump victory mean for Georgia health care? It’s hard to say with any certainty. But health care experts suggest the effort to expand Georgia’s Medicaid program now faces steeper odds than ever. (Miller, 11/9)

Now that Donald Trump has won the presidency, Republican congressional leaders are making it their priority to repeal and replace the 6-year-old Affordable Care Act. That's adding to the uncertainty surrounding the future of MNsure and people who depend on the health care exchange. (Benson, 11/10)

When it comes to the immediate impact of the presidential election on local companies and the Nashville-area economy, the fallout varied largely by sector. ... Meanwhile, a rewritten Affordable Care Act could lead to more costs falling on the shoulders of hospitals if fewer people are insured. HCA tumbled 11 percent, LifePoint Health was down 14 percent and Community Health Systems dropped 22 percent. The tumbling share prices of hospital operators do not necessarily have a direct impact on the Nashville economy, but if their employment numbers are affected by depressed earnings, then Nashville could be hurt, [Stephen Frohsin, a principal at Woodmont Investment Counsel in Nashville,] said. (McGee, 11/9)

Some Californians were shocked and deeply worried. Some were confused and cautious. Others were glad to hear California’s health insurance exchange might be dismantled. Here is a smattering of reactions from around the state to the election of Donald Trump, who has vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act when he becomes president. (Gorman and Ibarra, 11/9)

The White House will continue encouraging people to sign up for health insurance during the ongoing open enrollment period, even with the threat of a repeal of Obamacare under President-elect Donald Trump. “This administration is going to continue to make a strong case that people should go to HealthCare.gov, consider the options that are available to them, and the vast majority who do will be able to purchase health insurance for $75 a month or less,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at a press briefing Wednesday. “We want to make sure that as many Americans as possible understand the opportunity that’s available to them.” (McIntire, 11/9)

Governors are anticipating gaining more authority over the massive Medicaid health program for the poor now that Donald Trump is heading to the White House, while millions of Americans are wondering whether they will lose their coverage. But Trump made conflicting statements about Medicaid during the campaign, leaving experts scratching their heads about what his victory means for the people it covers. Moreover, despite his and fellow Republicans’ pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there may be political push-back to taking away Medicaid coverage from the millions who got it under the law. (Joseph and Ross, 11/10)

Millions of low-income Americans on Medicaid could lose their health coverage if President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress follow through on GOP proposals to cut spending in the state-federal insurance program. The biggest risk for Medicaid beneficiaries comes from pledges by Trump and other Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which provided federal funding to states to expand Medicaid eligibility starting in 2014. (Galewitz, 11/9)

California has a lot to lose if President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress fulfill their campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare. The Golden State fully embraced the Affordable Care Act by expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor and creating its own health insurance exchange for about 1.4 million enrollees. Supporters held California up as proof the health law could work as intended. (Terhune, 11/9)

Some Republican state lawmakers expressed initial optimism about how the Donald Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress could affect one of Alabama's thorniest problems – how to pay for Medicaid. The Trump campaign called for block grant programs for Medicaid to allow states to be more innovative, although many details would have to be determined. A block grant could give Alabama more control over Medicaid. (Cason, 11/9)

Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday evening could impact the future of Alabama’s health care system, particularly Medicaid and Affordable Care Act policies. ... How Alabama’s relationship with Medicaid – and the 22 percent of the state that counts on it for health coverage – continues in a Trump administration remains to be seen. Trump’s platform includes a call for turning Medicaid into a block grant program, which House Speaker Paul Ryan has proposed in the past. Block grants would give states a lump sum of money for Medicaid, to spend as they see fit. Clouse said he believed that was “on the table,” but couldn’t say for certain. But block grants would also likely lead to reductions in overall program spending and rollbacks to Alabama’s already-minimal Medicaid program, said Jim Carnes, policy director for Alabama Arise. (Lyman, 11/9)

A proposal to expand a federal health insurance program for needy people could be off the table following the results of Tuesday's election. The victory of Republican Donald Trump, who has called for a repeal of Obamacare, along with the increasingly conservative Republican make-up of the South Dakota state Legislature could thwart Gov. Dennis Daugaard's efforts to expand Medicaid in the state. (Ferguson, 11/9)

The election of Donald Trump as president means the likely repeal of the Affordable Care Act and even more doubt about whether lawmakers will expand Medicaid in Idaho in 2017. “No sense in working on the branches of a problem if the root is going to be pulled up,” House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, said Wednesday. (Brown, 11/10)

Republican Donald Trump's presidency is primed to upend every corner of the health insurance industry that has spent the past six years acclimating to the rules of the Affordable Care Act. That shift will spill over to Americans with practically any type of health coverage—Medicare, Medicaid, employer-based or individual—which is creating anxiety for many in the industry and consumers alike. Among the most immediately affected were Medicaid-centric insurers, such as Centene Corp., Molina Healthcare and WellCare Health Plans, which took a beating in the stock markets Wednesday presuming the flood of Medicaid enrollees will come to a screeching halt. (Herman, 11/9)

With much about President-elect Donald Trump's health-care agenda still unclear, the health-care industry's initial response to his election has been scattered. Hospital stocks were down. Health insurers' stock prices were mixed. Pharmaceutical and biotech stocks, on the other hand, got a big bump. Trump's clearest policy position in health care has been his commitment to repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with another policy. But the responses to his election varied in large part because the details of exactly what would replace the Affordable Care Act and how that transition would occur have been vague. (Johnson, 11/9)

Hospital and insurance companies that have benefited from the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid coverage saw a sharp fall in their stock prices on fears a Trump administration could roll back that expansion. (Evans, Wilde Mathews and Beck, 11/9)

The future of health care policies that have benefited Centene Corp. is now uncertain with the election of Donald Trump — and investors reacted strongly on Wednesday. Shares of the Clayton-based company fell 19 percent to close at $54.05 on Wednesday. Other health insurers and hospital companies also closed lower. Trump has said repealing the President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will be one of his top priorities. The ACA, signed in 2010, paved the way for millions of Americans to gain access to health insurance regardless of preexisting health conditions. (Liss, 11/9)

Hospital stocks fell sharply Wednesday on expectations that Donald Trump will follow through on campaign promises to revoke the Affordable Care Act, which has helped hospitals by increasing the insured population. But two local health system chief executives said it will be hard do away with the landmark 2010 law, especially because Democrats retain the power of the filibuster in the Senate. (Brubaker, 11/9)

The U.S. hospital industry on Wednesday said it remained focused on ensuring that Americans have access to health care, and pledged to work the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers to address the nation's healthcare challenges. (Heavey, 11/9)

Lawmakers have spent months negotiating a package of bills that would clear the path for a major shift in the way the country regulates prescription drugs and medical devices — one meant to help spur innovation in health care. In exchange for simplifying the regulatory process, a top priority for Republicans, Democrats would secure additional funding for the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. (Kaplan, 11/10)

Donald Trump will be the nation’s next president, the shocking conclusion to a long and divisive campaign in which science was barely mentioned. Now, many people in the research community are contemplating what a Trump administration will mean for their work — and they don't like the outlook. “Trump will be the first anti-science president we have ever had,” Michael Lubell, director of public affairs for the American Physical Society, told Nature on Wednesday. “The consequences are going to be very, very severe.” (Kaplan, 11/9)

President-elect Donald Trump opens a door for Republicans to follow through on a longtime vow to repeal Obamacare. But it’s unclear exactly how Republicans would replace the law, and which GOP lawmakers might lead the key committees in the House to work on that effort. That’s because Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is term-limited, so he will step down as Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman. Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and former chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) are all vying for the chairmanship. Shimkus currently sits on the health subcommittee. Walden chairs the communications subcommittee. Walden may be the favorite because he just handed the Republicans a better-than-expected win. (McIntire, 11/9)

Twenty years ago, California became the first state in the nation to approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes. On Tuesday, Californians voted to legalize it for recreational use — a move expected to reduce drug arrests, raise up to $1 billion in new tax dollars for the state and regulate a growing industry that has largely gone unchecked. (Gorman, 11/9)

Tuesday's election notched several wins for marijuana law reformers across the country, including those in four Ohio communities. Three states legalized recreational marijuana and the vote was too close to call in a fourth state, according to unofficial election results. Four states legalized medical marijuana. (Borchardt, 11/9)

Strong backing from the Bay Area — in money and votes — helped propel the measure to legalize recreational marijuana to victory in California, ending the ban on a long-illicit drug in a state with the world’s sixth largest economy. (Krieger, 11/9)

The potential impact of Proposition 64 and legalized recreational marijuana in California was driven home by more than 50 city and county measures that set rules for taxing, regulating and governing the pot trade at a community level. (Hecht, 11/9)

Just a day after voters legalized marijuana for recreational use, Massachusetts’ top regulator called on the Legislature to extend the deadline for opening retail shops beyond the January 2018 target date so she has time to build an effective oversight force. (Miller, 11/9)

In the aftermath of a new set of states legalizing marijuana use in the national elections, the NFL Players Association said Wednesday it is forming a committee to actively study the possibility of allowing players to use marijuana as a pain-management tool. The union is forming an NFL players pain management committee that will study players’ use of marijuana as a pain-management mechanism, among other things, though the union has not yet determined if an adjustment to the sport’s ban on marijuana use is warranted. (Maske, 11/9)

An argument that has been taking place in Mosquito Control board meetings, hotel conference rooms and Facebook comment strings finally moved to the ballot box on Tuesday. With most of the vote in (32 of 33 precincts) the GMO mosquito question had split results. (11/9)

Voters in one Florida county were at odds on a ballot referendum Tuesday about whether to allow the first trial of “Frankenflies” — mosquitoes genetically engineered to reduce populations of the species that spreads Zika. That species, the Aedes aegypti, lives in homes and is difficult to root out with insecticides. In addition to Zika, they spread yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya. In Key Haven, the town where the trial could be staged, more than 65 percent of voters rejected the plan. In Monroe County, which encompasses Key Haven, more than 57 percent of voters said yes to it. (Bluth and Kopp, 11/10)

The General Assembly’s Joint Commission on Health Care on Wednesday recommended making no changes to the state’s regulations on possible exemptions, including religious reasons, for otherwise-mandatory school vaccinations. (Demeria, 11/9)

An ongoing legal battle and a contentious political race in West Virginia have put a renewed spotlight on the role of giant drug distributors, including Cardinal Health, in fighting the opioid epidemic. (Rose, 11/9)

A divided Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would not reconsider a decision rejecting arbitration in a lawsuit about injuries suffered by a nursing-home resident. (11/9)

Texas Health and Human Services Commission officials listened to wide-ranging testimony about miscarriages, grief, loss and the need for human dignity Wednesday as they continue mulling a rule that would require cremation or interment of aborted or miscarried fetuses. (Evans, 11/9)

Dozens of people have been treated downtown over the past several days after apparently overdosing on a synthetic cannabis-like drug, officials said Wednesday.“ People were standing and walking around like zombies,” said St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson. “They didn’t know what they were doing or where they were at.”Some were found lying in the streets and on sidewalks. Most of those overdosing appeared to be homeless, Jenkerson said, and most were in the area of New Life Evangelistic Center on Locust Street or the nearby Central Library branch. (Hollinshed and Bogan, 11/10)

Republicans in Congress have been calling for the repeal of Obamacare since it passed in 2010. With control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, they may finally get their chance to undo huge, consequential parts of the health law next year. If they succeed, about 22 million fewer Americans would have health insurance, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 11/9)

Can Republicans pass a bill repealing Obamacare lock, stock and barrel? Technically, yes. They have control of the House and the Senate. Democrats in the Senate could filibuster, but I doubt the filibuster survives Trump’s term in any event, so I don’t see this as a permanent obstacle. There’s still a wee bit of a problem, however, which is that they have to get Republicans to vote for a repeal. I have no doubt that Republicans would like to vote for something they can call “repealing Obamacare.” The problem is that repealing Obamacare will involve getting rid of two provisions that are really, really popular: “guaranteed issue” (insurers can’t refuse to sell insurance to someone because of their health status) and “community rating” (insurers can’t agree to sell a policy to some undesirable customer for a million dollars a year; the company has to sell to everyone in a given age group at the same price). (Megan McArdle, 11/9)

Donald Trump was president-elect for less than a day before Republicans in Congress began gearing up to move policy in a way the country has not seen in six years. “The opportunity is to go big, to go bold, to get things done,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) declared. The last time one party controlled Congress and the White House, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. This time, Obamacare is on the chopping block. Full repeal seems unlikely for a variety of practical and political reasons. But even before the new administration and Congress set about scaling back the ACA, they must have a real replacement plan on deck. (11/9)

The election on Tuesday of Donald Trump as the next president is one of the most consequential events in the nation’s political history for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is likely to alter the basic direction of health care policy. Trump ran hard against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), saying repeatedly it was a “disaster” that needed to be repealed and replaced, and he won. There will be a very high expectation among Trump supporters that a Republican Congress can and should move quickly to fulfill this commitment. (James C. Capretta, 11/9)

One of their biggest problems will be how to fund the tax deductions or credits they have proposed to help people afford health insurance in their new system. That's because repealing the ACA means erasing the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes that pay for the law's premium tax credits and Medicaid expansion. Last January, congressional Republicans passed a repeal bill that wiped out the subsidies, the Medicaid expansion, and most of the major taxes, including taxes on hospitals, health insurers, medical device makers, and high-income taxpayers. President Barack Obama vetoed it. (Harris Meyer, 11/9)

We are a group of doctors who saw in your presidential campaign a threat to the health and well-being of the country. We wrote an open letter sharing our concerns, which more than 600 doctors signed. (Aaron Stupple, Andrew Goldstein and Steven Martin, 11/10)

The election of Donald Trump as president means that there will be a conservative Supreme Court for years and maybe decades to come, but how much the court will move to the right depends on the health and stamina of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 11/9)

The Democrats and President Obama are partly responsible for the defeat of the party and the success of Donald Trump. First of all, the Affordable Care Act was a catastrophic disaster for the Democrats. The chaotic and embarrassing rollout of the plan with a crashing and confusing web site presaged trouble, and now we have increases in premiums and cancelations. This gave the Republicans a piece of meat in which to plant their political hook. (Steffen Schmidt, 11/9)

The controversial California ballot measure to lower drug prices may have been defeated, but you can be certain that angst over rising medicine costs will prompt still more state efforts. Known as Prop 61, the measure vilified drug makers as greedy and criminal, but lost by a notable margin — nearly 54 percent of Californians voted it down. This is not surprising, though, and it’s not just because the pharmaceutical industry amassed a $109 million war chest to run a slew of ads that warned about unforeseen consequences. Prop 61 was simply the wrong initiative, even it if appeared at the right time. (Ed Silverman, 11/9)

There are reasons for the industry to cheer this result, which probably means less risk of drug-price regulation -- a focus of the Clinton campaign -- and the failure of California's drug-price reform proposition. But nothing has happened to shift the structural difficulties facing the industry. And so much uncertainty remains about what a Trump administration means for the economy that the celebrations should be toned down a bit. The prospect of corporate tax reform presented by a Republican-controlled government is a legitimate positive for the sector. Big pharma and biotech firms have some of the biggest cash piles in America, and a good chunk of it is kept overseas for tax reasons. If companies can bring that back more cheaply, then they may be more likely to invest it instead of watching it moulder on their balance sheet. (Max Nisen, 11/9)

The beverage industry spent a lot of money to defeat soda taxes in four American cities Tuesday, but it lost in every one of them. The victories for soda-tax advocates — in San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. — were decisive. Those communities now join Berkeley, Calif., and Philadelphia in embracing plans to tax sugary beverages. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 11/9)

It’s time to focus on the public policies that will move America forward. One area that holds great bipartisan promise is more tightly connecting healthcare with the home to support America’s rapidly aging population. In fact, bridging the health-housing divide is more urgent than ever. As highlighted in a recent report by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Senior Health and Housing Task Force, the United States stands unprepared for the demographic transformation now under way. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans aged 65 and above will exceed 74 million by 2030. In less than 15 years, more than one in five Americans will be a senior. (Mel Martinez, 11/9)

When most people consider the grief endured by physicians in training, they look first to the devastating narratives of patient care—sudden illness, agonizing decline, putrid decay, untimely death, haunting errors, and crushing uncertainty. Even more than a decade from residency, I am pierced by these tragic moments and faces—each still heart-shatteringly vivid. Recognizing the direct emotional toll of patient care, medical educators in some training programs have earmarked time for death rounds, Schwartz rounds, or narrative medicine sessions. Many of these interventions are deployed in high-intensity settings within the clinical learning environment where residents wrestle daily with ethical dilemmas or end-of-life dynamics. (Jennifer A. Best, 11/8)

Virtually every clinical research report includes basic demographic characteristics about the study participants, such as age, and how many participants were male/men or female/women. Some research articles refer to this latter variable as sex, others refer to it as gender. As one of the first pieces of data reported, the importance of including sex appears undisputed. But what does the sex-gender category really entail, and how should it be reported? (Janine Austin Clayton and Cara Tannenbaum, 11/8)