Welcome to the third issue of Headlines in Health Policy, a roundup of recent news about health coverage, health delivery system reform, and more.

• Trump Upset Will Force Health Care Leaders To Rethink The Future  Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer—Republican Donald Trump's shocking victory Tuesday will force a major shift in the healthcare industry's thinking about its future. Combined with the GOP's retention of control of the Senate and the House, a Trump presidency enables conservatives to repeal or roll back the Affordable Care Act and implement at least some of the proposals outlined in the GOP party platform and the recent House Republican leadership white paper on healthcare.
  
  
• Trump Says He Might Keep Some ACA Provisions: Washington Post by David Cutler—President-elect Donald Trump is already signaling that he might backpedal on his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, [saying] Friday that he’d consider hanging onto popular Obamacare provisions such as "the prohibition against insurers denying coverage because of patients’ existing conditions, and a provision that allows parents to provide years of additional coverage for children on their insurance policies."
  
  
• Obamacare Defenders Vow "Total war" Politico by By Jennifer Haberkorn and Paul Demko—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.
  
  
• 2016 Ballot Measures Election Results Politico
  
  
• Election 2016 Results: Ballot Questions - Healthcare Patch 
  
  • California. Drug Price Standards: Required state agencies to pay the same rate (or lower) for prescription drugs than that paid by the veterans' health plan. "No" won by 54 percent to 46 percent.
    
    
  • California. Tobacco Tax Increase: Increased the statewide tax on a pack of cigarettes by $2 and raise taxes on other tobacco products as well. "Yes" passed with 62 percent of the vote.
    
    
  • Colorado. State Healthcare System: Created ColoradoCare, a single-payer health insurance system in the state. It would levy a 10 percent payroll tax, paid by employers and employees at a ratio of 1:2, raising approximately $25 billion a year. "No" won with 80 percent of the vote.
    
    
  • Colorado.  Tobacco Tax Increase: Proposed a $1.75 tax increase on cigarettes per pack of 20. “No" won with 54 percent of the vote.
    
    
  • Colorado. Medical Aid in Dying: Legalized the option of assisted death for terminally ill patients who have six months or less to live. "Yes" won with 65 percent of the vote. Colorado’s action makes it the fifth state—after California, Oregon, Vermont and Washington—to put a physician-assisted suicide law on the books. 

• The Impact of Obamacare, in Four Maps New York Times by Margot Sanger-Katz and Quoctrung Bui—Three years into the Affordable Care Act, there remain places where many people still lack health insurance. But their share keeps shrinking. 
  
  
• Obamacare Faces New Challenge as the Uninsured Rate Plateaus  Fiscal Times by Eric Pianin—There were roughly 28 million uninsured Americans during the first six months of this year, a significant change from the 48 million consumers who lacked coverage at the time of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. 
  
  
• White House Forges On with Obamacare signups Despite GOP Sweep The Hill by By Sarah Ferris—The White House is urging people to sign up for coverage through ObamaCare, hours after the Republican electoral sweep that likely dooms the healthcare law’s future.  Spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday the Obama administration remains committed to its enrollment drive, which opened Nov. 1.
  
  
• Looking For Some Good ACA News? Health Reform, Medicaid And CHIP Drive Sharpest Decline on Child Uninsured Rate On Record RealClear Health by Joan Alker—The U.S. just reached an important milestone that will help more children grow to reach their full potential. Following the sharpest two-year decline in child uninsured rates on record, the U.S. made history with 95 percent of children covered by health insurance. 
  
  
• Anthem Threatens Obamacare Retreat If Results Don’t Improve  Bloomberg by Zachary Tracer—Health insurer Anthem, which has so far stuck with the Obamacare markets as rivals pulled back, said it may retreat in 2018 if its financial results under the program don’t improve next year. 

• Backlash Over High Prices Hits Pharma's Bottom Line Stat by Meghana KeshavanThe simmering public outrage over drug prices finally seems to be catching up to the pharmaceutical industry. Earnings reports in recent days have laid out a grim picture of slumping sales and anemic growth projections at several large drug makers and wholesalers. 
  
  
• McKesson Sounds the Drug-Price Alarm Wall Street Journal by Charley Grant—There are early warning signs that the steady march upward of drug prices is slowing. That is bad news for drug makers and for all of the health-care companies that have profited from consistently higher prices.

• Some Hospital Systems Pioneer Transparent Pricing, But Industrywide Progress Is Slow Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer - There are a small but growing number of health systems around the country that are thinking “more like retailers” and establishing clear pricing strategies to compete for consumers who face rising out-of-pocket costs under high-deductible health plans, according to a new report from the PwC Health Research Institute.
  
  
• CMS Funnels $140 Million More Into Medicare Primary-Care Payments Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson - CMS Wednesday announced changes to how Medicare pays for primary care that could result in an estimated $140 million in additional funding in 2017 to providers. The agency says several coding and payment changes could eventually lead to as much as $4 billion or more being funneled into care coordination and patient-centered care. 
  
  
• Fewer Hospitals Earn Medicare Bonuses Under Value-Based Purchasing Modern Healthcare by Elizabeth Whitman - More than 1,600 hospitals will see bonuses from Medicare in 2017 under the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program, according to federal data released Tuesday. The number earning positive pay adjustments is about 200 fewer than last year.
  
  
• Telemedicine Is Becoming More Widespread Baltimore Sun by Andrea K. McDaniels - Last year, more than 15 million Americans received some kind of virtual medical care, according to the American Telemedicine Association. The trade group expects the number to jump by 30 percent this year. 
  
  
• Nurses Are Again In Demand Wall Street Journal by Melanie Evans - After years of relative equilibrium, the job market for nurses is heating up in many markets, driving up wages and sign-on bonuses for the nation’s fifth-largest occupation. The last nursing shortage more than a decade ago ended when a surge of nursing grad.
  
  
• Feds Approve Y's Diabetes Program Despite Drug Maker Opposition USA Today by Jayne O'Donnell - Federal regulators will move ahead with a national test of Medicare coverage for a YMCA diabetes prevention program over the objections of the pharmaceutical industry, which sells drugs including increasingly expensive insulin to treat disease.

"Repealing Obamacare would increase the national deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, and it would be devastating for the working poor, individuals with pre-existing conditions, and millions of others who only recently were able to obtain health insurance."