If the GOP wins a majority in the House, Senate, or both, Congress won’t have “a definable health care agenda,” according to Axios’ Caitlin Owens.

The party’s candidates didn’t campaign on health care, so Owens’ story said their health policy actions will be reactive, “driven by real-world events more than campaign promises.”

Those could include health care inflation, the cost burden that expensive new drugs impose on Medicare and Medicaid, and the expected end of the Covid public health emergency.

But it all depends on how you define a health care agenda, Grace finds.

Congressional Republicans have promised to investigate, investigate, investigate, reports POLITICO’s Playbook, and health care won’t escape their critical eyes.

Our colleague Daniel Payne reported that other priorities include addressing fentanyl’s role in the opioid crisis, reining in the Biden administration’s pandemic responses, reducing health care costs and spurring pharmaceutical innovation.

The Washington Post’s Rachel Roubein reported that Republicans in both chambers are raring to open investigations on the origins of the coronavirus, prescription drug middle-men known as pharmacy benefit managers, Democratic governors’ Covid responses, school closures during the pandemic, and opioid and fentanyl deaths.

Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to lead on that oversight from his perch on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, but it may be his Kentucky colleague, James Comer, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, who gets to do it. The GOP’s chances of taking the House majority look stronger at the moment than do its chances of taking the Senate.

Republicans also have plans to pass some legislation on cybersecurity in the health care space, as Ben has reported, and to extend rules making it easier to use telehealth.

The election affected health policy more dramatically at the state level, with multiple wins for abortion-rights advocates.

On ballot measures to legalize marijuana, the country was divided.

Election night 2022 was the end of “a yearslong winning streak” for pot, reported Chris Roberts of MJBizDaily, a cannabis news outlet. Defeated legalization initiatives in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota were bad news for an industry that’s already struggling.

Maryland and Missouri, on the other hand, joined 19 other states, D.C. and Guam in legalizing weed.

And South Dakotans voted to extend Medicaid to cover more lower-middle-income people, prompting Vox’s staff to raise the question: “Why does Medicaid expansion keep finding success with red-state voters, if not their elected representatives?”

Vox’s answer: “Hearing from neighbors who will benefit, bringing federal tax dollars back to the state, and protecting the solvency of rural hospitals and health clinics” motivated people to vote against the wishes of Gov. Kristi Noem and Republican state lawmakers who opposed the initiative.

Thirty-nine states have now expanded Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program, including seven by ballot initiative.

This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. 

If you hate needles and you're not a big fan of squirting a potential nasal Covid-19 vaccine up your nostril, there’s hope: Australians are planning to bring a Covid vaccine patch to market.

Share news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at [email protected], Ruth Reader at [email protected], Carmen Paun at [email protected] or Grace Scullion at [email protected] 

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Today in our Pulse Check podcast, Ben talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about his recent conversation with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). Cassidy is a telehealth proponent and has repeatedly warned about hackers targeting hospitals and other health care organizations. Plus, Lauren Gardner takes Pulse Check's 60 second challenge.

Abortion-rights groups triumphed in this year’s elections.

Voters across six states voted to retain, if not enshrine, abortion access in ballot initiatives.

Emboldened by the results, activists plan to keep pressing to expand access, reported POLITICO’s Ollstein and Megan Messerly.

“We showed up, especially young voters of color, in record numbers. Now, we need these elected officials to show up for us,” Morgan Hopkins, the leader of All* Above All, an abortion-rights advocacy group, told POLITICO.

Meanwhile, anti-abortion advocates, who were banking on a red wave, are wondering what went wrong. One explanation? They say Republicans didn’t talk about abortion enough.

But abortion-rights activists say the election results show the public is on their side, tweeted the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Kate Smith and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The failure of a ballot initiative to deny a right to abortion in conservative Kentucky made that abundantly clear, according to Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.

Anti-abortion activists acknowledged they have work to do if their side is to succeed in future elections.