WASHINGTON — Election season will bring a reckoning for members who took controversial positions on health care issues over the past year, and an opportunity for new members to make a mark in the next Congress.
Some long-serving members such as Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Republican Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona risk losing their seats as the political ground has shifted under them. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican running for the Senate, leads a state that has pursued cutting-edge health care affordability proposals. And the race to replace Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) draws a contrast between two different philosophies on health care.
While the presidential candidates for each party have laid out lofty policy goals, many of those will need buy-in from Congress. The overall makeup of the House and Senate will be instrumental in determining what policy goals can be achieved, but individual races will also be important indicators for members as they decide how to vote on issues in the future.
STAT identified six congressional races that could shape health policy over the next two years, from spots on key committees to opportunities for bipartisan cooperation.
Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.)
Davis stuck his neck out as one of the only Democrats willing to support pharma-friendly changes to water down Democrats’ drug pricing reform law. North Carolina is a state with a significant biotech presence.
The patient advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs Now ran television ads in his district criticizing him for the stance. He’s also bucked his party on votes on funding for Israel and criticizing the Biden administration’s border policies. If Davis wins, it could encourage other Democrats to consider backing pharma-friendly legislation, too.
Cook Political Report, an election handicapper, rates the race a toss-up.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
The race for control of the Senate will be a close one, and it would be a huge loss for Democrats if the incumbent Tester loses his re-election bid.
While reproductive rights activists in Montana are optimistic about the prospects of a state ballot measure to protect the right to abortion in the state constitution, it’s possible that won’t necessarily translate to support for Tester, who favors abortion rights.
Cook Political Report currently rates the race as leaning toward Tester’s opponent, Tim Sheehy.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Baldwin is a long-tenured member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and her loss would certainly be felt on the panel if she doesn’t pull out her re-election race.
Baldwin has been a bipartisan leader on health policy, particularly in contrast with her Republican counterpart in Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson, who has raised concerns about the Covid-19 vaccines. She introduced legislation this term on women’s health, drug pricing transparency, expanding research into viruses that could spark pandemics, and forcing hospitals to disclose when they plan to terminate services.
Baldwin’s opponent, Eric Hovde, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1990s and is critical of the Affordable Care Act, saying the law “has failed to live up to its expectation.”
Cook Political Report currently rates this race a toss-up.
Replacing Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)
The two Democratic candidates to replace Eshoo, a prolific lawmaker on health policy who represented Silicon Valley, offer two starkly different Democratic visions for health care.
Evan Low, a state assembly member, would take the seat in a much more liberal direction if he were elected as a progressive Medicare for All supporter. Sam Liccardo, the former mayor of San José, is a more business-friendly moderate in Eshoo’s mold who has backed more modest reforms to pharmacy middlemen.
Even though the race is between two Democrats, it is the 10th-most expensive House race in the country, according to the campaign finance database OpenSecrets.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan
Maryland has been on the cutting edge of several health care cost containment issues, with the creation of a prescription drug affordability board and efforts to control hospital costs. If Hogan is able to flip the seat, currently held by a Democrat, he’ll bring a unique perspective to the Senate, and could be a Republican who’s willing to work across the aisle on health care issues. Hogan says that he opposed GOP efforts in 2017 to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Hogan’s campaign has focused more on health care affordability issues for prescription drugs than on reproductive rights. While Maryland was one of the first states to pioneer a prescription drug affordability board, Hogan tried to veto funding for the entity. As a senator, he’s said he would focus on bipartisan health care policy that targets pharmacy benefit managers, keeps Medicare Advantage premiums low, and increases competition and transparency.
Cook Political Report rates this race as likely to be won by Hogan’s Democratic opponent, Angela Alsobrooks.
Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.)
In one of this cycle’s most closely contested races, Schweikert could lose his seat to emergency room doctor Amish Shah. Schweikert is the chair of the oversight subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee and has introduced legislation on telehealth, artificial intelligence, and incentivizing treatments for substance abuse.
Shah highlights his ER experience working with patients who were poisoned by fentanyl. He said if he’s elected he would “stand up to corporations who are price-gouging critical medications and necessities” and wouldn’t take corporate PAC money. He also says he wants to lower drug prices and protect access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
Cook Political Report rates the race as a toss-up.