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The personality looming over the 2018 midterms was President Donald Trump. The issue was health care, the top concern for voters as they decided how to cast their ballots. This week's election showed a nation increasingly — if belatedly — in step with former President Barack Obama's approach to it. (Mulvihill and Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/8)

For eight years, Republicans waged a war against Barack Obama’s health-care law, holding dozens of repeal votes, filing lawsuits and branding it a dangerous government takeover. On Wednesday, they effectively surrendered. The day after crushing midterm election losses handed Democrats control of the House, GOP leaders signaled they had no appetite to make another go at shredding the signature accomplishment of Obama’s presidency anytime soon. (Sullivan, 11/7)

Congress’s health-care priorities are likely to focus on drug prices as Obamacare repeal becomes a non-starter for a split legislature, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. On changes to Obamacare, “I think it is very obvious that a Democratic House is not going to be interested in that,” McConnell said at a post-midterm elections news conference in Washington, after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and Republicans added to their control of the Senate. (Armstrong, 11/7)

Obamacare repeal is officially dead. On to the battle over Medicare for All. Tuesday’s midterm victories by Democrats mean that Republicans no longer have a path to make major changes to the Affordable Care Act. It also sets up a debate between Democrats’ liberal and moderate wings over whether to embrace a broad expansion of insurance to all Americans as they prepare to challenge President Donald Trump for the presidency in 2020. (Tozzi, 11/7)

According to the Associated Press, 26 percent of voters said health care was the most important issue for them in deciding their vote, and three out of four voters who listed health care as their top issue voted for Democrats. Economic issues like health care premiums and protections for pre-existing conditions were dominant themes in political ads throughout the campaign, and seemed to resonate with voters. (Adams, 11/7)

The elections will usher in the program’s largest growth since Obamacare’s early days, after Republican leaders in those states resisted the optional program for years. Democratic victories in Kansas, Maine and Wisconsin gubernatorial races could soon put those states in the expansion column, and voters in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah easily approved initiatives adopting the program. (Pradhan and Ollstein, 11/7)

Despite the uncertainty and partisan gridlock that Tuesday’s election results ensure, one policy change seems guaranteed: hundreds of thousands more poor Americans in red states will qualify for free health coverage through Medicaid. Voters in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah, which President Trump won easily in 2016, approved ballot initiatives to expand the government insurance program under the Affordable Care Act. Democratic victories in governors’ races also improved the chances of Medicaid expansion in Kansas and Wisconsin, and all but ensured it in Maine. As a result, Medicaid could see its biggest enrollment bump since the health law began allowing expansion in 2014. (Goodnough, 11/7)

Utah voters on Tuesday approved a measure expanding Medicaid coverage to thousands of low-income adults, circumventing Republican lawmakers who have opposed the policy for years. The measure raises the state sales tax to fund the expansion of Medicaid eligibility to those making 138 percent or less of the federal poverty level — about $17,000 for an individual and $25,000 for a family of four. (Hellmann, 11/7)

"People are enthusiastic about Medicaid expansion because they recognize that it's both good for health care but it's also a compassionate thing to do," says Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of The Fairness Project, which worked to get the questions on the ballots of the four states. "And it's a financially sound thing to do. It's a fiscally responsible thing to do." (Kodjak, 11/7)

In addition, Maine voters elected Democrat Janet Mills as governor, clearing the path for a Medicaid expansion that voters approved by referendum a year ago. The outgoing GOP governor, Paul LePage, has been an ardent foe of the expansion and had blocked it for a year, leading to a court battle. (Goldstein, 11/7)

Kaiser Health News: Midterm Election Boosts Medicaid Expansion, But Challenges Remain

It wasn’t a clean sweep, however, for Medicaid on Tuesday. In preliminary results, a ballot issue to fund Montana’s Medicaid expansion — which is already in place and slated to expire next July — was failing. Tobacco companies had mounted a campaign to stop the measure, which would have partially financed the expansion with taxes on tobacco products. The Montana legislature and the Democratic governor are expected to address the issue in the session that starts in January. No state has reversed its Medicaid expansion, even though GOP governors in Kansas and Arkansas have threatened to do so. (Galewitz, 11/8)

Overall, the outcome of Tuesday's Medicaid ballot initiatives and some of the governors' races pleased healthcare providers and patient advocacy groups, who predicted greater access to needed healthcare services and a significant decline in uncompensated care. Advocates view these election successes as a springboard to expanding Medicaid in nearly all 50 states and providing coverage to millions more Americans. Up to now, the single-biggest factor in winning expansion in resistant states like Louisiana and Virginia has been the election of a governor who supports it. Polls consistently show majority public support for expansion, even in the most conservative states. (Meyer, 11/7)

Maine Governor-elect Janet Mills says improving health care will be a top priority when she takes office in January.  Mills made an appearance Wednesday morning at Becky’s Diner in Portland, where she also said she would follow through on promises to address the opioid epidemic and climate change. Inside Becky’s Diner, Mills got a warm greeting from former state legislator and political strategist Pat Eltman, who hugged Mills as she passed by. Eltman said the win was a long time coming. "It's a really big deal for women in the state and how hard we've worked for this our whole careers.” Standing outside Becky’s Diner in front of a group of reporters, Mills doubled down on a campaign promise to address health care issues. (Arnold, 11/7)

Democrat Laura Kelly promised a new tone of bipartisanship after a victory in the Kansas governor's race brought her national attention. She faces a Republican-dominated Legislature with leaders who call her proposals impractical and vow to hold her to a pledge not to raise taxes. ... Kelly wants Kansas to expand its Medicaid health coverage in line with the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act, something Brownback and Colyer stymied. Voters in Republican-leaning Idaho and Nebraska, approved expansions Tuesday. "It's long past time to expand Medicaid," Kelly said. (11/7)

Even as health worries supposedly topped voter priorities, when the final ballots were counted in Texas, voters opted for status quo. Don't look for much to change in the state. Republican incumbents Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick handily dispatched their Democrat opponents Tuesday, all but guaranteeing that Texas will not expand Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, anytime soon. (Deam, 11/7)

One of his goals is to take hundreds of millions of dollars in additional federal aid under the Affordable Care Act to expand BagderCare, the state's Medicaid program that provides health careto low-income people. Under such an arrangement, the state could cover more people and free up state taxpayer funds for other purposes. [Robin] Vos said last month he would never go along with such a plan. (Marley and Beck,11/7)

Obamacare didn’t just give more people health insurance. It also caused more people to vote. That’s the conclusion of a new body of evidence that strongly suggests that giving people coverage through expansions of the Medicaid program increases their likelihood of participating in the next election. Medicaid expansions seem to raise both voter registration and voter participation, at least temporarily. (Sanger-Katz, 11/8)

The electoral dissonance underscored that the issues people vote on at the ballot box don’t always align with the candidates they vote for. The outcomes also highlight the approach advocates took in trying to get the ballot measures passed — namely, by not associating them with either party. “Americans are far more generous than our politics suggest,” said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness Project, a three-year-old nonprofit organization that has used ballot measures to circumvent deadlocks in legislative and executive branches­ of government. The group backed several minimum-wage and Medicaid-expansion measures that passed Tuesday. (Dennis and Weigel, 11/7)

Even in deep-red states, voters embraced an array of liberal-backed ballot measures in Tuesday's election — expanding Medicaid, targeting gerrymandering, boosting minimum wages, legalizing marijuana use. The results heartened left-of-center activists, who see a path going forward for circumventing Republican-controlled legislatures. With the new Congress deeply split along partisan lines, the outcome ensured that the states will serve as pivotal battlegrounds for social issues heading toward the next election in 2020. (Crary, 11/7)

Party identification is one of the most powerful forces in politics, with many people voting strictly on party lines when it comes to choosing their politicians. But ballot measures, while often pushing policies favored by one party more than another, don’t come with “D” or “R” labels. Voters can make their choices without feeling like they’re casting their ballots for one party or another. Most Americans “aren’t particularly ideological,” said Lilliana Mason, a government professor at the University of Maryland and author of a recent book, “Uncivil Agreement,” about identity in politics. (Pearce, 11/7)

With the fate of Roe v. Wade hanging in the balance, Tuesday night’s midterm elections brought high stakes for both sides of the abortion debate. Antiabortion advocates gained clear legislative victories in Alabama and West Virginia, where voters passed constitutional amendments paving the way to ban abortion if the new conservative consensus on the Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 ruling that outlawed restrictions on the procedure before the fetus is viable. (Schmidt and Boorstein, 11/7)

On Tuesday, Alabama became the first state in the nation to enact what opponents call a “personhood clause” in its constitution, recognizing “the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.” That makes it possible for the state to ban abortion entirely if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The measure includes no exemptions for abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. (Ollstein and Roubein, 11/8)

West Virginia narrowly passed a similar amendment that states nothing in the state Constitution "secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion." That vote was 52 percent to 48 percent. Proponents of the amendments say the measures signal the opinions of voters, and would not have any impact under current law. (Weixel, 11/7)

Republican victories in crucial Senate and governors’ races this week have tightened social conservatives’ grip across American government, strengthening the party’s power as it seeks to limit abortion rights and push harder to the right on a number of divisive cultural issues. Even as Democrats captured the House and promised to act as a check on President Trump and Republican policy priorities, conservatives were breathing a deep sigh of relief on Wednesday after strengthening their majority in the Senate. Their gains in the upper chamber could have a far-reaching impact on the remainder of the president’s term, particularly on his ability to continue shifting the ideological balance on the federal courts. (Peters and Dias, 11/7)

President Trump on Wednesday said he has a “solution” to the abortion rights debate, but did not provide details. At a wide-ranging and sometimes confrontational press conference following the midterm elections, Trump was asked how he would “push forward” with his anti-abortion agenda, as promised during the campaign. (Anapol, 11/7)

After the shooting massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla., survivors found themselves taking on the National Rifle Association as they crisscrossed the country rallying young adults to register and vote against candidates opposed to gun control. On Tuesday, the Parkland students got a dose of political reality. While their registration drives enrolled thousands of younger votes, the students were unable to turn key races in their home state. (Burch, 11/7)

Voters have agreed to fund improved security at a suburban Indianapolis school district where a 13-year-old girl and a teacher were shot in May. Unofficial results show about 58 percent backed the measure Tuesday to collect an additional $50 million over eight years for Noblesville Schools. The money would be used to employ more school resource officers, safety staff and mental health counseling staff, and to recruit and keep teachers. (11/7)

Washington state voters approved an initiative creating some of the strictest gun-control regulations in the country, including enhanced background checks, an increase in the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic rifle to 21, and requirements that gun owners keep their firearms locked at home. (Lazo, 11/7)

Single-payer is where state government essentially replaces insurance companies in paying health care providers. Last year, nurses were furious when a bill to advance single-payer died in the state Assembly and Gov. Jerry Brown expressed doubt the state could afford it. Now, with Newsom set to replace Brown as governor, Stephanie Roberson, legislative advocate with the California Nurses Association, hopes to move the single-payer ball down the field. (Shafer, 11/7)

Question 1 forced a complicated health care issue into the spotlight, and though it was soundly defeated, supporters and opponents both said Wednesday that the publicity had raised awareness about the stressful and difficult job of nurses. Steve Walsh, president of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, said hospitals want to “turn the page” on the campaign season. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/8)

This year, more candidates with degrees in science, medicine and engineering ran for Congress than ever before. Of the nearly two-dozen new candidates in this crop, at least seven won seats in the House of Representatives. The newcomers, mostly Democrats, include Chrissy Houlahan, who has a degree in industrial engineering and won in Pennsylvania. Sean Casten, who has worked as a biochemist, flipped a longtime Republican district in Chicago. Ocean engineer Joe Cunningham, who came out strongly against offshore drilling, won in South Carolina. Lauren Underwood, a registered nurse, won Illinois’s 14th District. In Virginia, Elaine Luria, who has a nuclear engineering background, defeated the Republican incumbent, Scott Taylor. Jeff Van Drew, who won a seat representing the 2nd Congressional District in New Jersey, is a dentist. (Guarino and Kaplan, 11/7)

Democratic Rep. Jared Polis won his bid to become Colorado's next governor — and, in the process, became the first openly gay man in the U.S. to be elected governor. The congressman ran on a progressive agenda of implementing universal health care and increasing the state's dependence on renewable energy. (Dwyer, 11/7)

Marijuana initiatives appeared on ballots in four states in the midterm elections. In Michigan and North Dakota, initiatives gave voters the opportunity to legalize marijuana for recreational use. In Missouri and Utah, voters chose whether to allow people who are sick to use the drug for medical reasons. (Hauser, 11/7)

Record-breaking spending by the dialysis industry helped doom a controversial California ballot measure to cap its profits. The industry, led by DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care, spent nearly $111 million to defeat Proposition 8, which voters trounced, 62 to 38 percent, and appeared to approve in just two of 58 counties. The measure also faced strong opposition from medical organizations, including doctor and hospital associations, which argued it would limit access to dialysis treatment and thus endanger patients. (Ibarra and Gorman, 11/8)

California voters on Tuesday approved Proposition 4, which authorizes the state to sell $1.5 billion in bonds for children's hospitals to be used mainly on infrastructure projects. As of 8 am on Wednesday, the measure had 60 percent support. More than two-thirds of the bond money will go to eight nonprofit children’s hospitals. Smaller amounts will go to University of California children’s hospitals and hospitals not specifically designated for children, but with a children's program or a children's wing. (Klivans and Dembosky, 11/7)

Axne, a first-time candidate who launched her campaign more than a year ago, found a winning message in calling out Young’s health care record. She was particularly critical of the Republican’s 2017 vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a dominant issue in other tough GOP re-election bids around the country. ... Young, first elected in 2014, tried to push back on the health care narrative. He argued that an amendment he co-sponsored would have helped people with pre-existing conditions. (Rodriguez, Ta and Rood, 11/7)

At the top of [Jose] Oliva's early legislative agenda are changes to the state's healthcare system, which the South Florida Republican has long criticized as a "hospital-industrial complex" that enables hospitals he regards as government-subsidized, self-regulated monopolies. On his slate of considered proposals: another attempt to remove the state's certificate-of-need process for approving hospitals, and expanding free-market competition among the state's healthcare providers by enabling options like surgical centers and telemedicine. (Koh and Mower, 11/8)

Former federal prosecutor Josh Kaul declared victory Wednesday over Attorney General Brad Schimel in a hard-fought race that came down to less than a percentage point. Kaul laid out plans for the Department of Justice to supporters Wednesday on the steps of the Dane County Courthouse, including withdrawing from a lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act — a key issue in all three major statewide races this fall. (Beck, 11/7)

With the new majority, Manchester’s Donna Soucy is expected to become Senate President. Soucy says health care, education and job training will be Democratic priorities, and that the party will work with Sununu when it can. ...The Democrats will also hold a roughly 60 seat majority in the 400-seat New Hampshire House, the first time the party has had control in the lower chamber since the 2012 election. (Bookman, 11/7)

Baker, in his final debate and again Wednesday, has pointed to addressing climate change as a major priority. That — like the opioid crisis, education funding, and health care financing — is also high up on House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo’s to-do list, which could help foster the same kind of collaborative work Baker touted on the campaign trail. (Stout, 11/8)

Baldwin signaled very early that she was going to make health care a main theme of the race when she signed up for independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare-for-all:" proposal. She also stood as a defender of the Affordable Care Act, constantly repeating that she didn't go to Washington, D.C., to take away people's health care. (Glauber, 11/7)

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has cemented his role as one of the nation’s top defenders of the Affordable Care Act, filing multiple lawsuits in the past two years to uphold key protections of the law and often clashing with the Trump administration. Voters this week gave Becerra a clear mandate to continue that work, he said. (Young, 11/8)

Progressive topics like paid family and medical leave, a minimum wage hike and legalizing recreational marijuana will get a new lease on life with Democrats taking control of the state Senate for the first time in a decade. This election marked another historic milestone, with Brookline Democrat Melanie Levesque, a former House member, becoming the first African-American to win a Senate seat in the state. (Landrigan, 11/7)

Scholten is a fifth-generation Iowan raised in Sioux City. He waged a people-supported grassroots movement against King that gained momentum as he campaigned across the district for better health care, an economy that keeps college graduates in-state and fighting for the Iowa farmer. (Peikes, 11/7)

[Annie] Kuster pointed to health care, prescription drug prices, shoring up Social Security and Medicare as issues where the two parties on Capitol Hill, and President Donald Trump, may find common ground. She even suggested lawmakers and the president may reach a compromise on the divisive issue of illegal immigration. ...[Chris] Pappas pointed to transportation and infrastructure and veterans’ health care as two issues where he could work with the president. (Steinhauser, 11/7)

The Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party and the Legal Marijuana Now Party both managed to garner at least 5 percent of the vote in the statewide attorney general and state auditor race, respectively, crossing the threshold needed to earn major party status in the state. The secretary of state’s office said preliminary results show both parties had the votes needed to earn major party status, but the office was still canvasing results of the election to make sure they also earned at least one vote in each of Minnesota’s 87 counties. (Bierschbach, 11/7)

Shares in drugmakers and U.S. health insurers rallied on Wednesday, after election results delivered a split Congress that is unlikely to significantly cut government healthcare programs or reduce drug prices in the world's biggest and most profitable market. Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats in Tuesday's elections, a setback for President Donald Trump, but increased their grip on the Senate, signaling likely policy gridlock in Washington. (11/7)

Health insurers rose sharply Wednesday as investors anticipated that any prospects of repealing the Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance to millions of Americans, diminished greatly now that Democrats control the House of Representatives. Marijuana companies soared after several states voted to partly legalize pot, oil and gas companies benefited from the defeat of a ballot measure in Colorado that might have restricted drilling, and a dialysis services company rocketed higher after California voters rejected a measure that would have capped the profits of dialysis clinics. (11/7)

The future looks brighter for many health-care stocks following the 2018 election, as the likelihood of rolling back the Affordable Care Act diminished following the Democrats winning the House. Insurers and hospital stocks rose, with UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH 4.21% up 4.2%, Anthem Inc. ANTM 6.59% up 6.6% and Cigna Corp. CI 2.82% rising nearly 3%. WellCare Health Plans Inc., which provides services to families and individuals primarily through Medicaid and Medicare, jumped 7.3%. (11/7)

“A relief rally is logical given that the other outcomes were leading to likely increased headline risk,” said Jefferies health strategist Jared Holz.(Darie, 11/7)

Shares of two of the nation’s largest dialysis providers, DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care, soared Wednesday after California voters defeated Proposition 8 — a state ballot measure that sought to cap revenue for dialysis centers. DaVita’s stock jumped 10 percent, closing at $76.08 a share; Fresenius was up nearly 9 percent, closing at $43.17 a share. (Ho, 11/7)

Humana offered a positive take on 2019, saying it expects that the midpoint of its initial earnings-per-share guidance will be “slightly above” analysts’ consensus projections. In the key individual Medicare Advantage business, the insurer suggested it could see growth of around 250,000 to 300,000 members, and margins will “improve nicely,” but still likely be below the long-term target of 4.5% to 5%. (Mathews, 11/7)

Democratic leaders say they would use their first month in the House majority to advance sweeping changes to future campaign and ethics laws, requiring the disclosure of shadowy political donors, outlawing the gerrymandering of congressional districts and restoring key enforcement provisions to the Voting Rights Act. They would then turn to infrastructure investment and the climbing costs of prescription drugs, answering voter demands and challenging President Trump’s willingness to work on shared policy priorities with a party he has vilified. (Fandos, 11/7)

House Democrats will use their new majority to seek deals with President Donald Trump on infrastructure spending and prescription drug costs, but won’t back down on their oversight responsibilities, said party leader Nancy Pelosi, in line to regain the speaker’s gavel. "We believe we have a responsibility to seek common ground where we can," Pelosi of California told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. "Where we cannot, we must stand our ground." (Wasson and Flatley, 11/7)

Trump expressed his support for working across the aisle on drug prices at a press conference that spanned about an hour and a half on Wednesday. But at the same time, he threatened not to work with the Democrats in general if they use their investigative power to scrutinize his administration. “I expect that [Democrats] will come up with some fantastic ideas that I can support on the environment, on so many different things, including prescription drug prices, which we’ve made a big dent in already,” Trump said. It’s unclear if he has actually made such a dent. (Swetlitz, 11/7)

Kaiser Health News: House Dems In New Seats Of Power Will Steer Health Policy, Attack Drug Prices

With the Senate (and the presidency) remaining under Republican control and even fewer moderate Republicans left in the House after this election, Democrats will struggle to move legislation without Republican support. What they can do is hold hearings, launch investigations and generally unnerve the pharmaceutical industry, among other likely adversaries. And there’s a chance they could strike a deal with President Donald Trump, whose administration is moving to crack down on drug companies. (Huetteman, 11/7)

The drug industry is bracing for a deluge of drug pricing proposals from the soon-to-be Democratic House of Representatives. But it’s not worried about the controversial policies that have been blaring in TV ads and featured in stump speeches in recent months. Democrats campaigned on a slate of sweeping drug pricing proposals, like allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies and creating a Senate-confirmed price-gouging enforcer. But those ideas are likely dead on arrival in the Senate, which remains in Republican control. (Florko, 11/7)

The advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs had a near-perfect night at the polls on Tuesday, marking its first year on the national elections scene by claiming success in all but one of the competitive elections it had waded into. The group’s sole issue, lowering high prescription drug prices, even provided a rare point of agreement on Wednesday in a deeply divided Washington. In post-midterms remarks, President Trump cited high drug costs as a potential area for compromise with Democrats. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer — the Senate’s top Republican and Democrat, respectively — extended the same olive branch. (Facher, 11/8)

Will House Democrats set their sights on high drug prices over Russian election hacking? Should drug industry CEOs be checking their mailboxes for subpoenas? Is Bob Casey or Greg Walden the next Orrin Hatch? What about the next Claire McCaskill? Drug industry executives are no doubt buzzing over many questions in the wake of the Democrats’ takeover of the House. Democrats made health care a central plank of their re-election drive, and they’ve made clear that they’ll leverage their new power to make lots of noise about the high cost of prescription drugs. (Florko, 11/8)

The Democrats’ takeover of the House changes the dynamic on health care issues, which played a prominent role in the midterm elections. This is a look at likely scenarios in the 116th Congress under a Democratic House and GOP Senate. The health care law remains a divisive and politically charged issue a year after Republicans fell short of overhauling the law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152). Congress has been unable to move a bipartisan compromise on legislation to update the law in a significant way and that is unlikely to become easier in a divided Congress. (Clason, McIntire and Siddons, 11/7)

Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi repeated over and over in the run-up to Nov. 6 that the midterm election wasn't about President Donald Trump.It was about health care. All of the Democratic Party's young, rising leaders -- and thus much of the old guard as well -- are embracing some form of universal health insurance. So what happens now that the Dems retook the U.S. House majority but remain in the minority in the U.S. Senate? (Perry, 11/7)

In winning control of the House of Representatives, Democrats take over the chairman’s seat in the chamber’s committees. Here are the men and women likely to be setting the agenda for key committees, and what policy changes to expect from them. (11/7)

On the health agenda, shoring up the exchanges created under the 2010 health care law and lowering the cost of prescription drugs are the top priorities for the panel. The retirement of Rep. Sander M. Levin, D-Mich., opens up the top spot on the Health Subcommittee. California Rep. Mike Thompson is currently the panel’s most senior member who doesn’t lead a subcommittee. Other senior committee members like Reps. Lloyd Doggett, of Texas, and Bill Pascrell, Jr., of New Jersey, are also outspoken on health issues. (Lerman and McIntire, 11/12)

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will see only modest change next year. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., will be chairman again and Patty Murray, D-Wash., is likely to remain as ranking member. On health care, the committee may continue its shift away from changes to the 2010 health care law and focus on reducing the cost of prescription drugs. Alexander and Murray held a number of hearings on drug costs during the 115th Congress and identified it as a future priority. Their previous bipartisan attempts to stabilize the individual market are expected to take a back seat due to disagreements over language related to abortion funding. (Raman, 11/12)

With Republicans retaining control of the Senate, Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson will serve his final two years as chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee before six-year GOP term limits set in. Isakson will continue oversight of the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs, a nationwide bureaucracy with about 300,000 employees who are tasked with providing prompt and quality medical care to more than 9 million veterans across the country. (Kelley, 11/12)

The Special Committee on Aging is likely to be led for a third term by Maine Republican Susan Collins. She has been a member of the panel since 1997, her entire Senate career. She will look at combating fraud against older Americans, working to help make it easier for Americans to save money for retirement and increasing funding for biomedical research, especially for diseases that disproportionately affect seniors such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s. (Teitelbaum, 11/12)

A day after Republicans expanded their Senate majority, the Trump administration on Wednesday finalized a policy change that allows some employers with religious or moral objections to opt out of providing no-cost birth control for female workers. The new regulations from several federal agencies apply mainly to religious organizations, nonprofits and small businesses. Women's rights groups already suing the administration over an earlier version of the opt-out vowed to continue their court battle. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/7)

The rules notch a deep exception to a federal requirement under the Obama-era interpretation of the Affordable Care Act that essential health benefits must include coverage of contraception at no charge to consumers. The circumvention of this mandate, first proposed by Trump health officials a year ago, is part of the administration’s alliance with social conservatives for whom “religious liberty” has become a central cause and who had objected to the contraceptive mandate. (Goldstein, 11/7)

The exemptions, which the department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday, are less sweeping than an original set of rules laid out a year ago that would have allowed virtually any employer to opt out of the contraceptive mandate by claiming a religious or moral objection. Those rules were blocked from going into effect by two federal judges. ... A group of Democratic state attorneys general filed suit last year against the administration’s original set of exemptions, and are likely to pursue legal action to attempt to prevent the new exemptions from taking effect. (Hackman, 11/7)

The Trump administration wants Obamacare insurers to send patients separate bills each month for the portion of their policies that covers abortion. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to send separate invoices for the part of plan members’ monthly premiums that cover abortion, in a proposed rule published Wednesday afternoon. (Tozzi, 11/7)

General Electric Co and other large companies are trying to chip away at rising childbirth costs for U.S. employees, working directly with hospitals to reduce cesarean sections and related complications. The efforts are in very early stages, with few details on their impact outside of cost savings of a few million dollars so far. But they illustrate yet another path companies are taking to bring down U.S. medical costs by working with doctors and hospitals to set health goals. (Mincer, 11/7)

It’s open enrollment time for health care plans, so we're talking to Bernard Tyson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, one of the country’s largest health care and hospital organizations. He sat down with us to explain the dilemma of health insurance costs and what patients are getting with their coverage. (Ryssdal and Purser, 11/7)

A substance that gives pot its kick appears to reduce the brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease – at least in mice. In mice that had been genetically tweaked to develop symptoms like those of Alzheimer's, animals that received a synthetic form of tetrahydrocannabinol for six weeks performed as well as healthy mice on a memory test, scientists reported Tuesday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. (Hamilton, 11/7)

A new oral antibiotic drug currently in development appears to be effective at treating gonorrhea, an infection for which there is a critical need for new therapeutic options, a study published Wednesday suggested. The findings are the result of a Phase 2 trial, a small study done to determine if further, larger studies are warranted. Evidence from larger Phase 3 trials would be needed to persuade the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory agencies to license the one-dose drug, zoliflodacin. (Branswell, 11/7)

Vietnam and the United States have finished the cleanup of dioxin contamination at Danang airport caused by the transport and storage of the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The 74 acres of land cleansed of the toxic chemical were handed over to Vietnam at a ceremony Wednesday where Vice Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh praised the U.S. government's involvement in the cleanup. (11/7)

Last year was one of the worst flu seasons the United States has experienced in close to four decades—claiming the lives of nearly 80,000 Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were an estimated 15,000 hospitalizations and 1,600 deaths related to the flu last year in Louisiana alone, according to data provided by the state’s Department of Health. Normally, the flu causes approximately 500 deaths and nearly 3,000 hospitalizations each year in Louisiana. (Clark, 11/7)

Two people living in different parts of the same city could have very different life expectancy rates, according to data from the U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project. USLEEP released a comprehensive data set, the first-of-its-kind, tracking these rates at the neighborhood level. (Nguyen, 11/7)

Babies of older fathers are at greater risk of premature birth, low birth weight and other neonatal problems, a new study reports. Mothers may also be affected: Those with older partners were more likely to have gestational diabetes, probably because older paternity is associated with changes in the placenta. The study, published in BMJ, used data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on more than 40 million live births between 2007 and 2016. (Bakalar, 11/7)

Kaiser Health News: At Death’s Door, Shedding Light On How To Live

Nothing so alters a person as learning you have a terminal illness. Ronni Bennett, who writes a popular blog about aging, discovered that recently when she heard that cancer had metastasized to her lungs and her peritoneum (a membrane that lines the cavity of the abdomen). There is no cure for your condition, Bennett was told by doctors, who estimated she might have six to eight months of good health before symptoms began to appear. (Graham, 11/8)

If you can do a downward-facing dog, you're among the increasing numbers of Americans doing yoga. A new report says more adults — and even kids — are practicing yoga and meditation. A government survey conducted last year found 14 percent of adults said they had recently done yoga, and the same percentage had recently meditated. That's up from about 10 percent and 4 percent from a similar survey done five years earlier. (11/8)

Texas' decision to spend $33.3 million less on students with disabilities in 2012 will likely cost it millions in future federal funding after a Wednesday afternoon 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. According to the New Orleans-based court, the U.S. Department of Education was within its rights to try to withhold the same amount from Texas' special education grants, since a 1997 federal statute prohibits states from reducing their funding for kids with disabilities from year to year. (Swaby, 11/7)

A woman who shot Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller and attacked abortion clinics in several states in the 1990s has been released from prison in Oregon, prompting concern in clinics across the country, according to a published report Wednesday. (11/7)

When a new state law took effect in August, supporters believed it would finally remove an obstacle for police officers seeking mental health treatment and maybe help lower a high suicide rate. Turns out it was not that simple. The law prohibits police departments from firing officers whose firearm owner’s identification cards have been revoked after an inpatient stay at a mental health facility. Many departments, including the Chicago Police Department, require officers to have FOID cards. After the law was passed, Chicago and some other departments said they would still require FOID cards for officers who work the streets. (Buckley, 11/7)

Two residents of St. Elizabeth Hall, an independent-living apartment complex on the campus of Stella Maris, a nonprofit long-term care facility in Timonium, were diagnosed with Legionnaire’s disease, officials confirmed Tuesday. Stella Maris notified state and Baltimore County health officials and building residents and instituted water restrictions at St. Elizabeth, which has a separate water system from the campus. Officials plan to continue treating the water and cooling and heating systems, and will continue to test, treat and monitor for the bacteria that cause the disease, officials said. (Cohn, 11/7)

A Florida surgeon removed a woman's healthy kidney while she was undergoing back surgery because he believed the vital organ was a cancerous tumor. The Palm Beach Post reported last week that Maureen Pacheco has sued Ramon Vazquez and two other surgeons for malpractice. Vazquez was responsible for cutting Pacheco open in 2016 so two orthopedic surgeons, Dr. John Britt and Dr. Jeffrey Kugler, could perform the back operation. (11/7)

A professor at Ohio's Shawnee State University is suing his superiors in federal court after he was punished for not referring to a transgender student by the pronouns she requested. Nicholas Meriwether, who teaches religion and philosophy at the public university, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court Monday against the school's trustees and other officials stating they violated his freedom of speech, freedom of religion and due process. (Knight, 11/7)

Amid a series of deaths, lawsuits and an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged civil rights abuses of mentally and medically ill County Jail inmates, San Luis Obispo County officials now say the U.S. Department of Justice is getting involved. ...The FBI formally launched an investigation into the county’s treatment of inmates in May 2017, a spokeswoman previously confirmed, after receiving at least one complaint related to the January 2017 death of Atascadero resident Andrew Holland. (Fountain, 11/7)

Fidelis Healthcare Partners, a recently launched affiliate of Houston-based Fidelity Realty Partners, has reached a deal to develop its first project. The company has been awarded the contract to build Saint Joseph Medical Office Pavilion, a five-story office and retail building on the recently completed campus of Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, the company announced. (Feser, 11/7)

The Sacramento City Council will vote Thursday on whether to declare an emergency shelter crisis, potentially unlocking millions of dollars in state funding as the city struggles to find shelter for its more than 1,000 homeless people. A state law, signed in June, gives Sacramento and 10 other California cities the option to declare a shelter crisis to gain access to a portion of $553 million in state funds. (Clift, 11/8)

A dental business in Leawood has been deemed “a continuing high risk to the federal health care programs and their beneficiaries,” after agreeing to pay more than $5 million to settle allegations of Medicaid fraud. Samson Dental Partners does accounting, billing and other administrative services for dozens of ImmediaDent urgent care dental clinics in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. (Marso, 11/8)

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents has a new chair, and her first public act was to apologize for how university officials responded to a player’s death. The Baltimore Sun reports Linda Gooden apologized Wednesday to the family of 19-year-old Terrapins football player Jordan McNair, who collapsed from heatstroke on the field in May and later died. The 17-member board has spent weeks overseeing two investigations into his death. (11/8)

The city of Atlanta and Atlanta Housing recently announced a new partnership to develop 550 permanent supportive housing units through the HUD-funded initiative HomeFirst, according to a press release. This collaboration also involves Invest Atlanta, the United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness, and Partners for HOME, a public–private entity commissioned by the City to proactively manage the continuum of care for Atlanta’s homeless population. (Miller, 11/7)

Officials at the parent company of Somerville Hospital apologized Wednesday night for not meeting “our own standards for transparency and accountability” in the death of Laura Levis, who went to the emergency room during a severe 2016 asthma attack and found the door locked. In a statement, Cambridge Health Alliance pledged to improve its emergency medical response protocols days after The Boston Globe Magazine published a story about how the cracks and flaws in the health care system led to Levis’s death. (McDonald, 11/8)

The city of St. Louis and the U.S. Geological Survey this month are starting a study to determine if filling demolition sites with clean soil instead of building materials can help address one of St. Louis’ biggest environmental problems: sewage overflows. Typically, contractors working for the city fill the basement with concrete and other materials from the demolished building. (Chen, 11/7)

Recreational marijuana sales in Massachusetts are likely just days away, after state regulators said they had cleared two licensed cannabis testing laboratories to officially begin operations. Two labs — CDX Analytics in Salem and MCR Labs in Framingham — were issued “commence full operations” notices by the Cannabis Control Commission on Wednesday. (Adams, 11/7)

The Democrats achieved their victory Tuesday night in large part by promising to protect health-care coverage, especially for Americans with preexisting conditions. Though effective in winning over moderate voters, the campaign did not establish a clear mandate for much beyond that — eminently valid — objective. And of course, even if the Democrats set forth a list of specific proposals for the House, before or after Election Day, the Senate and Mr. Trump’s veto pen could block it. Still, the party can outline an alternative policy direction for the country. It can begin with measures to shore up the Affordable Care Act but then move to reforms of federal gun laws. (11/7)

After an election campaign centered largely on health care, voters delivered their most emphatic message on the issue — not to Congress, but to the governments of red states. Expand Medicaid to cover a bigger share of the low-income population. For years, the people of Idaho, Utah and Nebraska watched their legislatures stubbornly refuse to widen Medicaid coverage as Obamacare proposed — forfeiting, in the process, billions in federal aid. On Tuesday, they took matters into their own hands, passing ballot initiatives to end the nonsense. In three more states — Maine, Kansas and Wisconsin — voters elected Democratic governors who promised to push for the same. (11/8)

With a Democratic House, a Republican Senate, and President Trump in the White House, get ready for two years of manuevering but little progress on health care — unless you look beyond Washington. What to watch: No new health legislation of any significance will pass in this Congress. Democrats in the House will try to come together on a health agenda for the party while their presidential candidates pursue their own platforms. Democratic oversight of the administration’s actions in the House will be unremitting and in the news. And most of the real action affecting people will be in the states. (Drew Altman, 11/8)

Many of the winning Democrats ran on the mantra of Medicare for All. Considering a recent Reuters survey of the public showed that almost 85% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans support the idea of Medicare for All, that was probably a good move. Had the Democrats won the Senate too, they might have convinced the mercurial Trump to go along with Medicare for All legislation. But, alas, that will not come to pass. (Carolyn McClanahan, 11/7)

The Food and Drug Administration last week approved Dsuvia, a powerful new opioid. The typical scenario for use is in wounded soldiers being transported off the battlefield who lack intravenous access for an injection or drip and who cannot swallow medication. Using a syringe-like applicator, medical personnel place the quickly dissolving pill under the patient’s tongue. (Sally Satel, 11/7)

Market forces are working from opposite directions to boost the death count from opioids. In the midst of this crisis, lethally potent street drugs are increasingly affordable and available, while their lifesaving antidote is increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain. (Michael Hufford and Donald S. Burke, 11/8)

The split decision in the midterm elections means disappointment and elation are running high in both political parties. As a physician, I am concerned about the impact of emotions on health. Health of the voters, that is. Stress hormones including adrenaline and noradrenaline are released at a time like this and they increase heart rate and blood pressure, and increase risk of heart attack and stroke. (Marc Siegel, 11/7)

In truth, we’re a pragmatic bunch: Fans of personal liberty, suspicious of over-reaching economic regulation, averse to extreme partisanship and inclined towards solutions. Two of the November ballot questions drive home the point. Question 1 asked voters to mandate nurse staffing ratios at hospitals. It was a naked piece of pro-union feather-bedding, interfering not only with healthcare administrators’ judgments but also elevating nurses at the expense of other healthcare professionals, such as social workers. (Tom Keane, 11/8)

Recognizing the urgency of this issue, [Gavin] Newsom called for the development of a “master plan for aging with dignity” after California’s June primary election. We heartily agree and enthusiastically support state leaders prioritizing older adults and coming up with solutions to California’s looming senior care crisis. But we have our work cut out for us. (Scott Wiener and Karyn Skultety, 11/7)

As Bay Area food banks, we work every day to fight hunger in our communities, collectively distributing over 172 million pounds of food each year, the equivalent of 143 million meals. We are alarmed by the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed changes to “public charge” regulations, which would increase hunger and poverty by punishing legal immigrants for using programs to nourish those in need and keep families healthy. (Leslie Bacho, Suzan Bateson and Larry Sly, 11/7)