As the end of the year approaches, the Managed Care sector hasn’t changed its sluggish pace. Just 20 deals have been announced through mid-December, a 56% drop from 2015’s total of 45 transactions.

Spending is another matter. As of this writing, nearly $1.7 billion has been committed to financing the 20 deals. There is no way to match last year’s outrageous total of $100.4 billion, courtesy of the two super-mega-deals from Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Anthem (NYSE: ANTM), made for Humana (NYSE: HUM, $37 billion) and Cigna (NYSE: CI, $54 billion), respectively.

You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard that the Justice Department challenged those mergers back in July, and the trials began this month. Outcomes will not be known until around the time of Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, or later, and are not expected to be influenced by the change of administration.

Should those deals be halted, and $91 billion simply disappeared from this sector’s combined deal value total in 2015, there would still be a decent total of $9.4 billion on the books for 2015. Oh, and Molina Healthcare‘s (NYSE: MOH) deal to buy certain Medicare assets from Aetna and Humana would be scrapped, as well. That deal, for $117.5 million, includes Medicare Advantage assets in 21 states, which will result in approximately 290,000 Medicare Advantage members transferring to Molina.

The sector’s largest deal announced so far in 2016 also involved government health plans. In November, WellCare Health Plans (NYSE: WCG) announced its $800 million purchase of Universal American Corp. (NYSE: UAM). WellCare exclusively offers government-sponsored managed care services, primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug plans.

Universal American provides health insurance and managed care products and services to Medicare and Medicaid customers. It operates through Medicare Advantage, Management Services Organization and Medicaid segments.

The acquisition will add 79,000 members to WellCare’s Medicare membership. WellCare expects annual synergies of approximately $25 million to $30 million by 2019.

WellCare also acquired Care1st Health Plan Arizona and ONECare by Care1st Health Plan Arizona in October. The seller, Blue Shield of California, agreed to a price of $157.5 million. The two plans will add 114,000 beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid to WellCare’s rolls.

This deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, most likely after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. As slow as the M&A activity was in 2016, we’re not looking for a lot more action in 2017, especially if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, as promised, on “day one” of the new administration.