MU, state groups react to Prop C passage

Tuesday's voters made up 17 percent of Missouri's population.

By Gregory Zajac

Published Aug. 4, 2010

Missouri voters became the first in the country to block a provision of the federal health care reform with a ballot initiative in the state’s primary election Tuesday.

Proposition C, which passed with 71 percent of the vote, denies the federal government the authority to penalize Missouri residents who do not buy health insurance under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law in March. The federal penalty is not set to go in to effect until 2014.

While other states have passed laws or filed lawsuits against the requirement, Missouri is the first state to reject the law by a referendum voted on by the state’s general electorate. The margin of passage for Proposition C in Boone County was closer than it was statewide, with 60.3 percent voting in favor of the ballot measure.

The Missouri Hospital Association, which lobbies for hospitals across the state, spent money to show what the effect of such a “yes” vote would mean and was in opposition to the measure.

MHA spokesman Dave Dillon said the requirement for people to buy insurance in the health care reform legislation existed to keep costs down and prevent consumers from taking advantage of the system.

Dillon said the removal of the federal penalty would allow people to go without insurance, putting them in a difficult financial position if they are diagnosed with a disease that has an expensive, long-term treatment. MHA estimates Proposition C could cost hospitals as much as $50 million, resulting in higher costs for those who do buy insurance and fewer available resources.

“A lot of people aren’t willing to cover their own risk, and they’re willing to shift that risk to other people,” Dillon said.

MU College Democrats secretary Alanna Bauer said the passage of Proposition C is largely symbolic because it probably will not hold up in court against the federal law. She also said that with Tuesday’s low voter turnout—about 17 percent statewide— the vote wasn’t representative of where most Missourians stand on the issue of health care reform.

“It’s kind of a symbol of where a lot of Americans stand, but its only a primary election so only a fraction of Missouri voters turned out,” Bauer said.

She emphasized the entire turnout in the election, about 1 million, was less than the population of St. Louis and the surrounding suburbs.

Unofficial election results released by the state also showed Missouri citizens came out and voted in Republican contests in much stronger numbers than in Democratic ones, with 577,612 casting ballots in the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, while only 315,787 voting in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Chris O’Connor, organizer of the Mid MO 9/12 Project Tea Party group, said in a text message that despite the low turnout, the wide margin of passage sent a clear message of the attitudes of Missourians. His organization publicly campaigned for Proposition C, holding rallies and fundraisers in Columbia and with other Tea Party groups across the state.

“The citizens of Missouri just let the federal government know what we think of their big government aspirations in an overwhelming number,” O’Connor said.

MU College Republicans chairman Brett Dinkins said he wants the freedom to choose not to buy health insurance, and said most Missourians who voted in favor of Proposition C felt the same way.

“A majority of Missourians and a majority of Americans support health care reform, but not in this way,” he said. “They do not support mandating participation in a health care plan.”

The widespread support for Proposition C sets the stage for the November general election and the 2012 elections, Dinkins said, and is a bad omen for Robin Carnahan and other Democrats running for congress who voiced opposition to the ballot measure.

“If they were supporters of health care and they weren’t supporters of Proposition C, I don’t see them doing very well come November,” Dinkins said.