“There are serious problems with Obamacare, serious problems that need to get fixed.”

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Is healthcare a winning issue for Democrats? Results were mixed in the Senate. Campaigning on healthcare fell short for Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who was unseated by Rep. Mike Braun; for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who lost her seat to GOP Attorney General Josh Hawley; and for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who was unseated by Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Both Cramer and Braun were slammed by the Democrats for voting in favor of the Obamacare “repeal and replace” bill, and Hawley signed onto a lawsuit to have Obamacare thrown out.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., held onto his seat after heavily campaigning on healthcare. He defeated GOP Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a candidate who had signed onto a lawsuit to have Obamacare thrown out. Manchin was also the lone Democrat to support the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In Nevada, campaigning on healthcare also appears to have helped Sen.-elect Jacky Rosen unseat GOP Sen. Dean Heller. Campaigning on healthcare was effective for Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who held onto her seat against GOP challenger Leah Vukmir, a state senator opposed to Obamacare.

No victory has been declared yet in Arizona, where Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and GOP Rep. Martha McSally are after the seat vacated by Sen. Jeff Flake. Sinema repeatedly hammered McSally during the campaign over her vote to repeal and replace Obamacare, though as of now McSally is in the lead and it’s uncertain whether there are enough outstanding Democratic votes left to close the gap.

Key Obamacare repeal architect also in race too close to call. Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., is also in a close race against challenger Andy Kim. With 99 percent of precincts reporting in, MacArthur leads by 2,315 votes, according to the Associated Press. MacArthur engineered a compromise amendment to the Obamacare repeal bill that let states ignore pre-existing condition protections. Healthcare became a major issue in the race.

Get ready for a push for giving Medicare drug price negotiating powers. With Tuesday night’s victories in the House of Representatives, Democrats are set to make a run at a long-held goal of giving Medicare the authority to negotiate lower drug prices when they assume control. House Democrats have been infuriated that President Trump has done nothing to endorse the proposal even after touting it throughout the 2016 campaign. Trump’s administration has sought to install price controls for certain Medicare drugs, but it has stopped short of giving Medicare, and not private plans, the power to negotiate lower prices. “We want to give President Trump what he said he wanted in the campaign: the bill that I have been working on that would give him the bidding authority that he said would save so much money,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, told the Washington Examiner in September. Democrats are also expected to launch a plethora of probes into the Trump administration. Cummings said that Democrats could examine why Trump “went back on his campaign promise” to endorse Medicare negotiating power.

Election night ushers in more Medicaid coverage. Hundreds of thousands of poor people across the country are set to be covered for the first time under government-funded Medicaid after Tuesday’s election results. Voters in Kansas, Maine, and Wisconsin flipped their governors from Republicans to Democrats who vowed to allow more people to receive Medicaid coverage under a provision created by Obamacare. Voters in Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho approved ballot measures to opt for Medicaid expansion. As many as 651,000 more people are projected to be added to Medicaid rolls, according to an analysis by the consulting firm Avalere Health.

It wasn’t a win across the board for Medicaid expansion. Democratic candidates in Georgia and Florida who had promised to pursue the Medicaid expansion did not win their respective governors races. In Montana, voters appear poised to reject a ballot measure that would make expansion permanent by funding it through a nicotine tax. The tobacco industry spent nearly $18 million encouraging Montanans to reject the tax, and as of Wednesday morning it appeared the measure was set for defeat.

West Virginia and Alabama pass abortion bans in preparation for Roe’s repeal. Both West Virginia and Alabama voters passed ballot measures Tuesday that amend their constitutions to outlaw abortion. The measures are to ensure that the states would immediately get rid of abortion if Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion a constitutional right, is struck down by the Supreme Court. It was an 18 percentage point victory in Alabama, but much closer in West Virginia, with the measure eking out a 51 percent majority.

Oregon shuts down abortion funding ban. Voters in Oregon roundly rejected a ballot measure to ban any state funding from covering abortions. With 91 percent of precincts reported, the measure was rejected with 64 percent going against it and 36 percent for it. Oregon is one of 17 states that use their own tax dollars to fund abortions, according to the abortion rights research firm Guttmacher Institute.

Planned Parenthood happy they won’t get defunded but won’t say if will push Democrats to repeal Hyde. Planned Parenthood officials said that they are optimistic that defunding of the women’s health and abortion provider won’t take place in the Democratic-controlled House. Officials said during a Wednesday call with reporters that the Obamacare repeal bill the House passed last year defunded Planned Parenthood. “With the historic number of pro-women champions in the House and the Senate a bill like that could never get out of the House,” said Dana Singiser, vice president of public policy and government affairs for Planned Parenthood Action Fund on a call with reporters. But officials declined to say if they would make a push for Democrats to repeal the Hyde Amendment, the spending rider that prevents federal funding from covering abortions. The amendment is included in every spending bill but the 2016 Democratic platform called for a repeal of Hyde. “We are focused on making sure that women have access to abortion care regardless of where the live, where their income is or who they are,” Singiser said in response to the question on Hyde.

Anti-abortion groups meanwhile gear up for a fight. Anti-abortion groups, on the other hand, said they are ready to fight the incoming the Democratic majority. “All pro-life gains made by this Administration will come under fire, and we will no doubt see efforts to expand taxpayer funding for abortion as well as the erosion of conscience rights,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, in a statement. “While the results of these midterm elections represent a significant setback, some measures can still be taken to minimize the damage and at the same time advance the pro-life cause.” Mancini added that President Trump should issue an “immediate veto threat” on any bills that include a repeal of Hyde.

Opponents to California’s dialysis ballot win over voters with $111 million raised. California voters have rejected a ballot measure to cap off dialysis profits. The measure, Proposition 8, is believed to be the statewide ballot that has featured the most spending by one side, with the dialysis industry and other medical coalitions setting aside $111 million to defeat it. The measure called for limiting dialysis firm profits to 15 percent, with the idea being that they would then put more money into improving their facilities. Opponents of the ballot, which include dialysis giants DaVita HealthCare Partners and Fresenius Medical, warned that people’s lives would be at stake if the measure passed. Proposition 8 supporters, led by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, spent $18 million.

New Jersey voters reject GOP Senate candidate from Pharma. New Jersey Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez on Tuesday won his third term in office, fighting off Republican challenger Bob Hugin despite allegations of corruption and bribery. Hugin’s race was not without its own controversies. The Trump ally faced scrutiny over a lawsuit biopharmaceutical firm Celgene Corporation dealt with under his management. The suits involved assertions the firm had hidden potentially dangerous side effects of some the cancer drugs it developed.

Healthcare tops voter concerns: Exit poll. Healthcare was one of the top drivers getting people to the polls on Election Day, early exit polls from CNN showed. Roughly 4 in 10 voters said that healthcare was the most important problem facing the country, and 7 in 10 said that the healthcare system needed major changes.

Joe Camel ad illustrator calls JUUL ads to teens ‘more egregious.’ The illustrator of the famous “Joe Camel” ad campaign that advertised R.J. Reynolds cigarettes thinks that the trendy ad campaign for JUUL e-cigarettes is much worse. “Just from a cursory overview with the weight of social media and getting a sense of the younger generation, to me the Juul [marketing] seems more egregious,” illustrator Jerry Lofaro told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. “To me that really captures more of the essence of a young person’s mind than a cartoon character like Joe Camel ever could.”

RUNDOWN

STAT News As election day neared, pharma spent more heavily on Democrats

Axios What a Democratic House means for healthcare

Politico Redemption for Obamacare

Kaiser Health News Midterm results show health is important but no magic bullet

California Healthline California dreamin’? With Newsom’s win, single payer unlikely to follow any time soon

CNBC CVS to test stores with added healthcare services next year