The New York Times: Health Exchange Enrollment Jumps, Even As G.O.P. Pledges Repeal
About 6.4 million people have signed up for health insurance next year under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said Wednesday, as people rushed to purchase plans regardless of Republican promises that the law will be repealed within months. The new sign-ups — an increase of 400,000 over a similar point last year — mean the health care coverage of millions of consumers could be imperiled by one of the first legislative actions of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. (Pear, 12/21)

The Associated Press: 'Obamacare' Holding Its Own: 6.4M Signed Up So Far
"Obamacare" seems to be holding its own. The administration said Wednesday that 6.4 million people have enrolled for subsidized private coverage through HealthCare.gov, ahead of last year's pace. Despite rising premiums, dwindling insurers and the Republican vow to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, about 400,000 more people signed up through Monday than for a comparable period in 2015, the Health and Human Services Department said. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Number Of Americans Enrolling On Health-Care Website Jumps
Ms. Burwell touted the increase in sign-ups as an indication that interest in obtaining insurance through online exchanges is still strong. “Some of the doomsday predictions about the marketplace are not bearing out,” she said. (Hackman, 12/21)

USA Today: First Obamacare Deadline Had Big Late Rush
About 4 million of those who signed up so far this year were renewing coverage, but Burwell said she expects more of the people who enroll ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline for 2017 coverage will be new customers. ACA critics charge the law has mainly attracted sicker people who have driven up the rates for others. (O'Donnell, 12/21)

CQ Roll Call: Obamacare Enrollments Rise
The number of new customers is slightly behind last year's tally. Last year, about 2.4 million new consumers signed up for marketplace coverage from Nov. 1 through Dec. 19. (Williams, 12/21)

Modern Healthcare: Not Dead Yet? Obama Administration Reports Surge In ACA Enrollment 
Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt said he thinks the enrollment surge has more to do with the affordability of the coverage than a sense of urgency driven by the looming threat to the ACA. The average shopper will be able to find coverage for less than $75 per month after premium subsidies. (Dickson, 12/21)

The Washington Post: 6.4 Million Sign Up For Affordable Care Act Plans, More Than In Previous Years
In releasing the latest Affordable Care Act sign-up figures, Burwell predicted that enrollment is on pace to reach the 13.8 million that HHS projected for this fourth sign-up season in the insurance marketplaces created through the law. (Goldstein, 12/21)

The Hill: 6.4M People Sign Up For ObamaCare So Far
Burwell urged Republicans not to repeal the law given the people who rely on it for coverage. Officials noted that over 30,000 people have called the ObamaCare call center worried about coverage going away due to a repeal. (Sullivan, 12/21)

Politico Pro: Nearly 6.4 Million Enrolled In Obamacare Plans By Key Deadline
HHS plans to launch new advertising next month specifically targeted at new customers. Burwell also said that although “headwinds” have increased — a nod to GOP promises to repeal the health care law — officials remained comfortable with their enrollment projections. (Pradhan, 12/21)

And for news on enrollment in the states —

Kaiser Health News: Obamacare Enrollment Is Beating Last Year’s Early Pace
The surge in sign-ups on the federal marketplace mirrors activity on several state-run Obamacare exchanges, according to figures obtained from states independently by Kaiser Health News. Minnesota, with more than 54,000 enrollees as of Monday, doubled the number of sign-ups it had at the same time last year. Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington had enrollment growth of at least 13 percent compared to a year ago. (Galewitz, 12/21)

Miami Herald: Obamacare Enrollment Surging In Florida, Feds Say
Nearly 6.4 million Americans have signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges at healthcare.gov, the Obama administration reported Wednesday, a surge in enrollment that included about 1.3 million people in Florida — more than any state using the federally run marketplace. Enrollment reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services captured sign-ups as of Monday, the deadline to choose coverage that begins on New Year’s Day, and reflected an increase of about 400,000 consumers over the same period for the prior year. (Chang, 12/21)

Tampa Bay Times: Florida Drives Surge In Obamacare Enrollment 
Despite the Affordable Care Act's uncertain fate, nearly 1.3 million Floridians have enrolled in coverage for 2017, up from about 1.1 million at this time last year for 2016 coverage, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday. (McGrory, 12/21)

Chicago Tribune: Obamacare Enrollment Up In Illinois, U.S. Despite Fears About Program's Future 
Despite Obamacare's shaky future, more Illinois residents signed up for health insurance through the law's exchange this year than last, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday. This year, 247,818 people in Illinois signed up on the exchange by the Dec. 19 deadline to purchase coverage that would begin Jan. 1. That's compared with 232,750 who signed up for coverage last year, said Jonathan Gold, a department spokesman. This year's enrollment period was two days longer than last year. (Schencker, 12/21)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Federal Government Offers Snapshot Of Obamacare Enrollment In Ohio
More than 160,000 Ohioans signed up for insurance coverage on the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offered a snapshot on Tuesday of how many people are shopping for health insurance through Healthcare.gov, the official website for the federal government's Health Insurance Marketplace. (Washington, 12/21)

Georgia Health News: With Its Future Cloudy, ACA Continues To Draw Rising Enrollment
Despite the specter of repeal of the Affordable Care Act, enrollment in the health insurance exchange in Georgia shows a slight increase. Federal figures Wednesday showed 352,282 Georgians have enrolled in a 2017 health plan in the insurance exchange through Dec. 19. (Miller, 12/21)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: 350,000 Georgians Sign Up For Obamacare Despite Repeal Threat
More than 350,000 Georgians have signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchange so far, new federal data released Wednesday shows. Nationwide, 6.4 million people selected Obamacare plans from Nov. 1 through the Dec. 19 open enrollment deadline for coverage that starts the first of the year. (Williams, 12/21)

Orlando Sentinel: Data: Nearly 245,000 Central Floridians Sign Up For Obamacare 
Florida is once again leading the nation with nearly 1.3 million people signing up for an Obamacare plan as of December 19, the latest federal data shows. Also following prior trends, the Miami and Orlando areas lead the state in the number of sign-ups, with 490,000 and 245,000 plan selections respectively. (Miller, 12/21)

Augusta Chronicle: Increase In Health Coverage Not Reflected In Dental Care 
The uninsured rate nationally and in Georgia has dropped since 2013 and under the Affordable Care Act more than 20 million people have gained coverage, according to a new report. But the number of adults who have gone a year without seeing a dentist has slightly increased, the report found. (Corwin, 12/21)

The Associated Press: Democratic Governors Warn Congress On Health Care Repeal
Democratic governors Wednesday warned top Republicans in Congress that repealing the Obama health care law would stick states with billions of dollars in costs for providing medical care to residents made newly uninsured. The Democratic Governors Association wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Governors estimated that states could face nearly $69 billion in costs for uncompensated care over the next 10 years if the health law is repealed. States traditionally shouldered a hefty share of such costs. (12/21)

The Hill: Dem Governors Warn ObamaCare Repeal Will Hurt States 
Democratic governors are calling on Republicans in Congress to leave in place the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly referred to as ObamaCare, warning that any move to replace the massive healthcare law will place a huge burden on state governments that have used federal money to help low-income residents gain access to medical care. In a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Wednesday that repealing ObamaCare could mean that 30 million people lose coverage by 2019. (Wilson, 12/21)

CQ Roll Call: States To Lobby Republicans To Maintain Obamacare Funding
Governors say they intend to pressure Republican lawmakers to maintain the amount of funding available to states under President Barack Obama’s signature health law until a replacement is in place. A number of different streams of money are available to the states under the 2010 health care overhaul (PL 111-148, PL 111-152), including additional federal dollars for the Medicaid in states that expanded the program under the law. Currently, 32 states including the District of Columbia have broadened Medicaid eligibility. (Williams, 12/21)

The Hill: GOP Considers Holding Off On Repealing ObamaCare Taxes
Congressional Republicans are considering holding off on repealing some of ObamaCare's taxes, according to lobbyists familiar with the discussions.  GOP lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee discussed the possibility of keeping some of the taxes in place during a retreat last week at the Library of Congress, the sources say. Even if some of the taxes are not removed as part of the initial repeal bill, it does not necessarily mean they will remain indefinitely. (Sullivan, 12/21)

And in other health law news —

The Associated Press: Lawmaker Says Son's Broken Arm Was Bad Health Care Example
A conservative GOP lawmaker says he "made a poor choice of words" when citing a decision to delay treatment of his son's broken arm to point out the benefits of a health care system in which consumers bear a greater share of out-of-pocket costs. Rep. Bill Huizenga stirred up controversy earlier this week after telling Michigan news site MLive.com that he and his wife opted to place a splint on their son's arm and wait until the next morning to take him to the doctor rather than seek immediate but more costly treatment at an emergency room. (12/21)

Arizona Republic: Parents, Foster-Care Advocates Stand Against Possible Repeal Of ACA
Parents and leaders of foster-care groups gathered at the state Capitol to warn lawmakers and the public about possible problems that could emerge with repealing the Affordable Care Act. The Children's Action Alliance, an organization that aims to help improve children's health and security, led the event Wednesday morning. (MacDonald-Evoy, 12/21)

USA Today: Senate Report Shows Martin Shkreli Is Just As Bad As You Think He Is
Staggering hikes  — in some cases higher than 5000% — in prices of prescription drugs threaten the health and economic stability of Americans who can't afford vital medicines, a congressional report warned Wednesday. The findings by the Senate Special on Aging summarize the panel's 2016 investigation of records from four pharmaceutical companies and public hearings that focused on sudden price spikes in decades-old medications and the pricing decisions imposed by drug industry entrepreneur Martin Shkreli and other industry executives. (McCoy, 12/21)

Stat: Senate Report Suggests Ways To Blunt Impact Of Drug Prices
In the wake of mounting anger over prescription drug costs, a new report by a Senate committee recommends several steps — such as accelerating regulatory review for generics and temporarily allowing imports — to blunt the financial impact that sudden price hikes are having on Americans. The report from the Senate Special Committee on Aging follows a year-long probe into several well-publicized instances in which drug makers — notably, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Turing Pharmaceuticals, which was run by Martin Shkreli — used controversial tactics to acquire older brand-name medicines and undermine competition after jacking up the prices to sky-high levels. (12/21)

Los Angeles Times: How 4 Drug Companies Rapidly Raised Prices On Life-Saving Drugs
U.S. Senate committee detailed in an investigative report Wednesday how drug companies were exploiting the market by acquiring decades-old crucial medicines and suddenly raising their prices astronomically. “We must work to stop the bad actors who are driving up the prices of drugs that they did nothing to develop at the expense of patients just because, as one executive essentially said, ‘because I can,’ ” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, who chairs the Senate Aging Committee. (Petersen, 12/21)

Kaiser Health News: Alleged Scheme To Fix Generic Drug Prices Started At Dinners And ‘Girls Nights Out’
The high prices Americans pay for generic drugs may have been cooked up by pharmaceutical salespeople on golf courses, at a New Jersey steakhouse or over martinis at a “Girls Nights Out” in Minnesota. Details emerging from an ongoing investigation show that drug company employees gathered regularly at such swanky locations and conspired to keep prices and profits high, according to interviews and a complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court by Attorneys General in 20 states. (Szabo, Aleccia and Zdechlik, 12/22)

Meanwhile, drug companies and others in the health industry continue to struggle on the stock market —

The Associated Press: Health Stocks Skid, And The Dow Finishes Shy Of 20,000
Stocks finished slightly lower Wednesday as healthcare companies continued to struggle. Energy companies rose as the price of natural gas surged on the first day of winter. Some traders aren't sticking around to see if the Dow Jones industrial average reaches the 20,000-point milestone: Trading volume has fallen sharply this week as the year-end holidays draw near. (12/21)

Modern Healthcare: Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove Named As Contender For Trump's VA Pick 
Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove was among prospective cabinet picks who met with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday. Cosgrove is reportedly a contender to lead the Veterans Affairs Department. Cosgrove and Luis Quinonez, the president of a company that provides healthcare services to the military, are the leading prospects for VA secretary, according to a Bloomberg report citing an anonymous source. Trump has said he intends to carry out a complete overhaul of the department and its healthcare system, which two years ago was engulfed in a scandal over excessive wait times for veterans seeking care. (12/21)

Politico Pro: Cleveland Clinic Chief Is Trump's Favorite For VA Secretary 
Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove has emerged as the top contender to be Donald Trump’s secretary of Veterans Affairs, a selection that would bring more private-sector experience to a Cabinet already stocked with it. Multiple sources briefed by Trump’s transition team said that while no decision has been made, the president-elect wants the health care executive, who was also considered for the post by President Barack Obama two years ago, and that Cosgrove is mulling over the post. (Palmeri and Nelson, 12/21)

Meanwhile, Stat talks with Donald Trump's doctor —

Stat: One-On-One With Trump's Doctor: Hecklers, House Calls, And Why Obamacare Must Be Shut Down
On a frigid December afternoon, Dr. Harold Bornstein was talking about his most famous patient, President-elect Donald Trump. He hadn’t spoken with Trump since the election, and had no idea whether he would be asked to move his medical practice to Washington. But he also didn’t seem particularly worried about what the stress of the job might mean for the nation’s oldest president — a distinction he hadn’t considered until this reporter pointed it out. (Swetlitz, 12/21)

The Associated Press: Judge: Medical Providers Don't Have To Give Info On Abortion
An Illinois judge has suspended a state requirement that health care providers who oppose abortion must give information or referrals to patients seeking the procedure. Winnebago County Judge Eugene Doherty granted an injunction Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by medical providers who oppose abortion, saying they "raised a fair question as to whether their right to be free from government compelled speech is violated." (12/21)

Chicago Tribune: Pregnancy Centers Win Early Victory Against Illinois Abortion Info Law
The state of Illinois cannot, for now, force a group of clinics that refuse to perform abortions to direct patients to doctors who will do the procedure, a state judge has ruled. Winnebago County Circuit Judge Eugene Doherty issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday in favor of a handful of clinics in Chicago and elsewhere, temporarily barring the state from requiring them to follow a law that takes effect Jan. 1.  It's the first court to weigh in on the law, signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner earlier this year, which requires physicians who don't want to perform abortions for moral reasons to help patients access abortion services elsewhere, if patients ask. (Schencker, 12/21)

Meanwhile, as Texas prepares to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, here's a look at what to expect —

The Associated Press: Things To Know As Texas Tells Planned Parenthood Cuts Coming
Planned Parenthood is poised to end 2016 in a familiar place: in court, asking a judge to stop a Republican-controlled state from blocking Medicaid dollars. Here's how the nation's largest abortion provider got there and what's next. (Weber, 12/21)

The Associated Press: Researchers: Nearly 400 Drug Addicts Helped In Police Effort
A novel drug addiction program developed in a small Massachusetts fishing town and since replicated in dozens of cities nationwide was able to place almost 400 addicts into treatment nearly each time they sought it during the first year of operation, researchers say in a report being published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Marcelo, 12/21)

In other news —

WBUR: Theater Troupe Tells Painful Stories To Get Teens Talking About Addiction 
The painful stories of people in recovery from drug and alcohol use may not sound like riveting theater exactly, but it seems to be resonating with many Massachusetts students. This school year alone, thousands of students have seen performances by theater group The Improbable Players. The actors, who are all in recovery, perform theatrical adaptations of personal stories of addiction. (Becker, 12/22)

Stat: A Cook-Off Seeks To Awaken Cancer Patients' Ruined Sense Of Taste
But behind the foodie fun is hard science and a real clinical conundrum. Killing cancer cells means killing healthy cells along with them. The poisons of chemo and the waves of radiation are especially good at taking apart the DNA of fast-dividing cells. That can help stop the out-of-control expansion of tumors. But the nerve cells in the nose and mouth replenish themselves quickly, and so they die, too. The resulting changes in taste and smell might seem like a small price to pay for a lifesaving treatment. Yet one’s desire to get up in the morning can be intimately connected to one’s ability to enjoy food. Lose your ability to taste properly and your mental and physical health — which, for cancer patients, is already fragile — can suffer even more. (Boodman, 12/21)

Los Angeles Times: 17% Of Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer Have Unnecessary Mastectomies, And Doctors Want To Know Why
What happens when doctors encourage patients to decide for themselves what kind of cancer treatment they should receive — and then the patients make the wrong choice? That is the dilemma facing a growing number of surgeons who care for women with early-stage breast cancer, new research suggests. (Kaplan, 12/21)

The Washington Post: A 23-Year-Old Bodybuilder Is Being Ravaged By Ovarian Cancer — And Instagramming It All
Three weeks before her wedding day, Cheyann Shaw uploaded a video to YouTube, a space the fitness fanatic regularly filled with workout clips and health tips. But this time was different: She was now using the social video platform for a more emotional and profound purpose. “I’m going to cry,” she said in the video, “but — I was told that I have cancer.” (Bever, 12/21)

Bloomberg: Robot Babies Meant To Scare Teens Out Of Having Kids Aren’t Working
For educators such as Wendy Conrad, Shaila [Dominguez's] child development teacher at Rapid City Central High School, the appeal of the robot baby is straightforward: Once teenagers see how tough parenthood is, the last thing they’ll want to do is have unprotected sex. At $649 each, not counting software and accessories such as car seats and diaper bags, the simulators are no small purchase for schools. But purchase they do, despite a growing body of research raising doubt about their effectiveness. The latest study, the first randomized, controlled trial to test the intervention’s long-term effectiveness on pregnancy outcomes, was the most damning of all. Published in August by Australian researchers in the Lancet, a prominent British medical journal, it found that girls who cared for the electronic progeny got pregnant and gave birth at a higher rate than those who didn’t. (Deprez, 12/22)

NPR: Secondhand Racial Discrimination May Affect Health, Too
Doctors have long known that black people are more likely than white people to suffer from diseases such as high blood pressure. A study suggests that racial discrimination may be playing a role in a surprising way. The study, which involved 150 African-Americans living in Tallahassee, Fla., found that knowing someone who had experienced racial discrimination was associated with genetic markers that may affect risk for high blood pressure. (Stein, 12/21)

The New York Times: Full Course Of Antibiotics Is Best For Infant Ear Infections, Study Finds
When babies have an acute ear infection, they tug at their ears, get cranky and struggle to sleep through the night. Ear infections are the most common reason doctors prescribe antibiotics to children. Because of the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria, many physicians had hoped that a shorter course of antibiotics would be as effective as the standard 10 days of treatment for babies. (Saint Louis, 12/21)

NPR: Cutting Back On Antibiotics Doesn't Work For Children's Ear Infections
Researchers looking into whether a shorter course of antibiotics would treat young children's ear infections as well as a longer course found that not only was the shorter treatment less effective but it didn't reduce antibiotic resistance or side effects. The study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, comes as physicians and researchers are looking for ways to curb the unnecessary use of antibiotics, including the possibility of using them for a shorter time against some common infections. (Hobson, 12/21)

The Hill: Feds Look To Reduce Lead Levels In Lipstick 
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is pushing for new limits on the amount of lead contained in lipstick and other cosmetic products. The FDA’s draft guidelines issued Wednesday recommend no more than 10 parts per million (ppm) of lead in lipstick, eye shadow, shampoo, shaving cream and lotion. ... The FDA noted that the majority of cosmetic companies do not use enough lead to pose a health risk, but the agency is concerned about the small number of lipsticks that contain more than 10 ppm of lead. The average lipstick contains slightly more than 1 ppm of lead, according to the FDA. (Devaney, 12/21)

NPR: After Brain Injury, Sleep Is Essential To Recovery
For patients with serious brain injuries, there's a strong link between sleep patterns and recovery. A study of 30 patients hospitalized for moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries found that sleep quality and brain function improved in tandem, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Neurology. (Hamilton, 12/21)

The New York Times: Statin Drugs Tied To Better Surgery Outcomes
Taking statins, the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, may make surgery safer. Researchers examined results in 96,486 surgeries in a Veterans Affairs database. It included a wide range of operations, though not heart surgery. The average age of the patients was 65, and almost all were men. About half were taking statins the day before and the day after their operations. (Bakalar, 12/21)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: He's Down To 435 Pounds, But Still Too Big For A New Heart
[James] Wagstaff-Duncan is a big man with a bad heart, and he has embarked on a medical experiment that is remarkable even by the outsize standards of the American obesity epidemic. The 30-year-old North Philadelphia man has struggled with his weight for years, and by last year it had reached 480 pounds — even as his heart grew dangerously enlarged and weak, unable to deliver enough oxygen to his 5-foot, 8-inch frame. Temple University Hospital physicians said he was near death and needed a heart transplant, but his immense weight made that too risky. Yet his best chance for losing weight — bariatric surgery — was out of the question because his heart was too weak. (Avril, 12/22)

Stat: A Mayor Fights To Save A Small-Town Hospital: 'It's Life Or Death'
Mayor Adam O’Neal wants his hospital back. He was born in Pungo District Hospital in the sleepy town of Belhaven, N.C. Decades later, as mayor of Belhaven, he counted on the hospital to provide not just health care, but scores of jobs. In his rural stretch of coastal North Carolina — beautiful but isolated, with a painfully high poverty rate — he saw Pungo as the “heartbeat” of the community. That is, until the hospital was shut down on July 1, 2014, less than three years after a much larger health system had purchased it. (Blau, 12/21)

Stateline: Licensing Medical Marijuana Stirs Up Trouble For States
States have struggled with how to give out potentially lucrative medical marijuana licenses — trying to balance public health concerns against an entrepreneurial spirit and avoid a bevy of lawsuits. Many want to ensure the businesses are well run and are supplying quality products. But even in states like Arizona where dispensaries are required to be nonprofits, competition for licenses can lead to a gold rush mentality and lawsuits as entrepreneurs eye a medical marijuana industry with $4.2 billion in sales in 2014. (Beitsch, 12/22)

Seattle Times: Data Breach Exposes Info For 400,000 Community Health Plan Members 
Almost 400,000 current and former members of the Community Health Plan of Washington have had personal information, including Social Security numbers, exposed in a data breach. The nonprofit, which provides health insurance through Medicaid in Washington, is sending letters to 381,534 individuals Wednesday notifying them of the invasion and steps they can take to protect themselves with help from Community Health Plan of Washington. There’s no evidence yet of any harm to members, said Marilee McGuire, its chief operating officer. The organization confirmed the breach Nov. 30 after a forensics investigation and notified the FBI and state regulators, including the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, McGuire said. (Young, 12/21)

Modern Healthcare: Dignity Health Considers Joint Venture With San Francisco Teaching Hospital 
San Francisco-based Dignity Health has begun negotiations with an academic medical center in the Bay Area, even as it proceeds with merger talks with Catholic Health Initiatives. During a call with analysts about its latest financial results, Dignity Chief Financial Officer Daniel Morissette said the system is pursuing a possible joint venture with an as-yet unnamed academic medical center because it would benefit Dignity's four hospitals in the Bay Area by having a teaching hospital behind them. Morissette cautioned that talks were very preliminary and confidentiality provisions in a nonbinding letter-of-intent prohibited him from naming the prospect. (Barkholz, 12/21)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Missouri One Of Eight States Participating In Mental Health Treatment Expansion Pilot Program
Missouri will be one of eight states participating in a pilot program expanding access to mental health services in community health clinics. It’s the next step in the Excellence in Mental Health Act introduced by Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and signed by President Obama in 2014. Blunt on Wednesday said that one in four Americans suffer mental health problems but only a fraction get care. The designation of Missouri and the seven other states “will help bridge that gap by expanding and improving access to quality mental and behavioral health care,” he said. (Raasch, 12/21)

St. Louis Public Radio: Federal Funds To Bolster Missouri Mental Health Clinics Through Demonstration Project
About a dozen of Missouri’s mental health clinics will receive an infusion of federal money in 2017, after the state was one of eight selected to be part of a national demonstration project. The clinics will be required to collect and report quality data and meet a set of criteria, which will determine how much funding they receive. (Bouscaren, 12/22)

Pioneer Press: 6 Twin Cities Chiropractors, 15 Others Accused Of Insurance Fraud Worth Millions
Four Twin Cities chiropractors fraudulently billed auto insurance companies for millions of dollars through “nearly identical” but independent conspiracies, according to four indictments unsealed Wednesday by federal prosecutors in Minneapolis. The four chiropractors plus 15 patient recruiters were indicted on charges of conspiring to commit health care fraud between 2010 and 2015, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. Two other chiropractors were implicated as well. (Cooney, 12/21)

Boston Globe: Eversource Shifting Thousands Of Retirees To Private Health Insurance 
Eversource Energy will remove 14,440 retirees from its health care plan in the New Year and will instead offer to reimburse them for buying private insurance, a switch being made by a growing number of big companies to curb costs. The electricity and natural gas company, the largest in New England, said the move will save $30 million a year in health costs and will benefit its retirees by offering a greater choice of plans through a new private insurance exchange. (Vaccaro and Johnston, 12/22)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Director Of Virginia's Behavioral Health Hospital For Children Has Been Reassigned
The state has removed the director of Virginia’s only behavioral health hospital for children and adolescents. Dr. Jeffrey Aaron no longer is in charge of the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton, said Meghan McGuire, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. (Martz and Kleiner, 12/21)

NPR: Refugees In Texas Get Help With Medical Care From Students
Each Wednesday at St. Francis Episcopal Church on the north side of San Antonio, dozens of refugees from all over the world come for free care at the Refugee Health Clinic. Students and faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio have teamed up to operate one of the only student-run refugee clinics in the country. (Rigby, 12/21)

Chicago Tribune: Ex-Employees Allege Nursing Home Tried To Mislead Inspectors On Abuse
Two social workers allege they were fired from a suburban nursing home after refusing to fabricate medical records related to incidents of patient abuse, according to their pending lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court. Some of their patient-abuse allegations were investigated separately by the Illinois Department of Public Health, which cited the facility for safety breaches, government records show. Once called Burnham Healthcare but now known as Bria of River Oaks, the 309-bed home serves geriatric and bed-bound patients alongside younger adults with mental illness, substance abusers and convicted felons. (Jackson and Marx, 12/22)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Cost Of Charity Care Doubled At Penn Medicine, Thanks To Lancaster General
The cost of charity care provided by the University of Pennsylvania Health System more than doubled in fiscal year 2016, which ended June 30. But that was not because of a new approach at the Philadelphia region's largest system.  Penn Medicine acquired Lancaster General Health on Aug. 1, 2015. That system provided slightly more than $8 million worth of charity care in fiscal 2016, half of the Penn health system's $16.3 million total, even though it accounted for just $912.3 million of Penn's $5.3 billion in net patient revenue. In fiscal 2015, Penn reported $7 million in charity-care costs, according to its audited financial statement. (Brubaker, 12/21)

Kaiser Health News: California Hopes $3 Billion Experiment Will Improve Health Of Neediest
Riverside County plans to connect former inmates with health clinics and social services. Orange County hopes to get homeless residents into housing — and help them stay there. Placer County is opening a respite center where homeless patients can go after they leave the hospital. Those are just some of the pilot projects in a $3 billion experimental effort officials hope will improve the health of California’s most vulnerable populations. The effort is a recognition that improving people’s health will take more than just getting them insured. (Gorman, 12/22)

Columbus Dispatch: Blue States In Better Shape For Health Coverage 
Romneycare is the nickname for the statewide system of universal health coverage signed into law by a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, 10 years ago. Recall Romney's response when Republican rivals in the 2012 presidential race hit him for creating the state-run health plan that became the model for Obamacare. Romney pointed out that it worked quite well in Massachusetts and said he'd leave it to other states — not the federal government — to create their own programs, if they wanted. We are now entering 2017 with the Obamacare vision about to be killed or eviscerated nationally but, as we see, not necessarily locally. States with the will and the money can enjoy universal health coverage. (Froma Harrop, 12/22)

Forbes: The Individual Mandate: Even Hypocrites Are Sometimes Right
It was the Obama administration and supporters of the ACA who essentially gutted the individual mandate. Back in 2010, ACA proponents, then in sales mode rather than governance mode, prioritized voter non-provocation over market stability and refused to implement the meaningful mandate they now so want to perpetuate. What we see now — rising premiums, higher cost sharing, narrower networks — is the consequence of that choice, one that some people (like me) predicted and that many of these same heralds of doom denied. If you want to see what the ACA looks like without an effective individual mandate, you don’t have to project forward to the Republican repeal plans, all you have to do is have read the news for the past few years — and then make it worse. (Seth Chandler, 12/21)

Detroit News: Don’t Settle For Partial Obamacare Repeal
If president-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have a mandate to do anything, it is to repeal Obamacare. The law isn’t working, they campaigned on abolishing it, and repeal would be a huge step toward providing more secure access to care for the sick. Obamacare has been a misadventure from the start. (Michael F. Cannon, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: California’s Coming $20 Billion Healthcare Emergency
California is facing a $20 billion healthcare emergency. That’s how much the state stands to lose in annual federal spending if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act. Putting this in perspective, $20 billion represents nearly 18% of all state general fund spending, projected at $113 billion this year. That amount is also roughly what the state already pays from its general fund for Medi-Cal costs. Even a nation-state like California cannot absorb an 18% budget shortfall without severely damaging public health and its economy. (Tom McMorrow, 12/21)

Stat: Congress Needs To Turn Its Attention To Medical Device Safety
With the landmark 21st Century Cures Act now signed into law, Congress needs to turn its attention to another pressing health issue: the safety — or lack thereof — of medical devices. ... For all the good that medical devices do, they can also cause harm. I know this because my health was almost irreparably harmed by the mercury-based dental amalgam used over my lifetime to fill cavities — it turns out that genetic susceptibility is a factor. I have friends, relatives, and colleagues who have endured cancers and autoimmune diseases, allergies, rashes, pain, memory loss, and incredible emotional strain from problems caused by various medical devices. (Laura Henze Russell, 12/21)

Health Affairs: Why Now? Concerns About End-Of-Life Health Care Policy
Each historical wave of interest in end-of-life care has attributed much of the high and undesired health care costs associated with that care to a culture that denies the inevitability of death. Perhaps this is why, in spite of the ebb and flow as well as the intensity of these discussions since the beginning of the hospice movement in the late 1970s, the medical arms race has continued apace with persistent growth in the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, increases in the numbers of dying patients using post-acute care, and increases in the proportions of the “oldest old” receiving open heart surgery or pnuemonectomy. At the same time, the proportion of Medicare beneficiary decedents receiving the Medicare hospice benefit has grown. This suggests a tendency for patients to demand and for providers to comply by offering more and more services of all sorts. (Vincent Mor, 12/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Helping Our Heroes Heal
In this season, we should remember that we are called to love our neighbor as we would like to be loved, and that these gifts can come in many forms. Among them is the healing power found in medical advances that for America’s veterans have provided miracles in dealing with war’s visible wounds. However, success in dealing with invisible ones, like post-traumatic stress (PTS), can be more difficult. ... Julia and Ken Falke faced this challenge. Ken was a Navy bomb-disposal expert who was seriously injured in a 1989 exercise. During his recovery, he learned not to let adversity diminish him, but to draw on the experience to grow as a person. ... Moved to help fellow veterans, the Falkes donated land and raised funds and, in September 2013, opened the nonprofit Boulder Crest Retreat in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. (Karl Rove, 12/21)

Sacramento Bee: California’s Renewable Energy Standards Depend On The Leadership Of Vulnerable Communities
Through SB 350’s Golden State Standards, California established some of the most ambitious renewable-energy and energy-efficiency standards in the world. The law set goals for increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency 50 percent by 2030. Still, renewable energy is often inaccessible to low-income families and communities of color – the same communities that are overburdened by pollution from power plants, refineries and industrial transportation corridors. (Miya Yoshitani, 12/21)