Missouri Healthcare Exchange Referendum Uncertain in Face Ballot Language Debate
Confused voters may get to decide the future of healthcare exchanges in Missouri. In May, Missouri’s Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a ballot measure for the November elections that would prohibit establishment of state health insurance exchanges, a cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act, without approval by the legislature or the voters. However, the reform law directs states by 2014 to set up the exchanges. Exchanges are interenet sites where consumers can comparison-shop for the health plan that best suits them. The bills is being proposed in en effort to block Governor Jay Nixon from establishing an exchange by executive order – even though Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governor has no intention of issuing such an order.
But as a Washington Post article points out, what the ballot initiative all but ignores is that if the state does not implement its own health care exchange by 2014, the health law requires the federal government to impose its own version. Realizing t his, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan drafted the ballot language to read: “Shall Missouri law be amended to deny individuals, families, and small businesses the ability to access affordable health care plans through a state-based health benefit exchange unless authorized by statute, initiative or referendum or through an exchange operated by the federal government as required by the federal health care act?”
According to the Washington Post, Republicans were outraged. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder called the it “biased, loaded language” that “is not fair, it’s not accurate, it’s not impartial—we have to get this into court.” So he filed suit to have Carnahan’s summary thrown out.
Carnahan’s camp maintains that it is “a fair and sufficient summary of the ballot measure.”
The Washington Post article clarifies the confusion in this way: “The initiative’s language implies that approval means Missouri will have no insurance exchange unless the legislature or the voters sign off on it (not true); Carnahan’s ballot language implies that approval will deny consumers access to insurance (also not true).”