Missouri voters vote today on a ballot measure that would ban laws requiring people to have health insurance, Associated Press/Columbia Missourian reports.
The vote presents the first time that voters in any state will take a referendum on President Obama's approach to healthcare, the Christian Science Monitor reports. However, the ballot measure won't represent a scientific sampling of public opinion, because mid-term primaries typically suffer from low voter turnout.
Because the Republican primary is more competitive than Democratic races on the ballot, the measure is expected to pass, reports Politico.
If it passes, the Show Me state's measure "could send a troublesome signal from a historical swing-state about the most high-profile accomplishment of Obama and the Democratic-led Congress," according to AP/Columbia Missourian.
Should the ballot measure fail, it would be a major setback for Republicans who have tried to make the federal health overhaul a central part of the midterm elections.
The proposed Missouri law would prohibit governments from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for paying health bills entirely with their own money. The referendum clashes with part of the new federal law that requires most Americans to have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014.
If the measure passes, Missouri would be one of six states to formally reject the overhaul, The Hill reports.
Because federal laws generally supersede state laws, the legal significance of the Missouri measure may be questionable. "It may have some rhetorical or symbolic significance," Allen Rostron, a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told AP/Columbia Missourian. But "if the federal law is valid, then this essentially amounts to a non-legally binding expression of dissent by the state of Missouri."
To learn more:
- read the Associated Press/Columbia Missourian article
- see the Christian Science Monitor story
- check out the Politico blog
- read The Hill blog
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