Health care ballot measures
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Ballot measures dealing with health care:
Health care trends in past fifty years
In 1960, the private sector funded over three-quarters of national health care expenditures, and nearly half of total national health care expenditures came from out-of-pocket funds from individuals. In the past half-century, however, that state has largely been reversed over a long, slow process. In 2007, the last time this information was recorded thoroughly, private funds contributed only fifty-four percent of total health care expenditures, with the federal and state levels funding the rest. As a result, out-of-pocket expenditures have plummeted at an even faster rate, and today only a bit more than ten percent is being funded through individual expenditures.[1]
The result, a recent report from Dr. Arthur Laffer says, is what is known as a "health care wedge": The space in which exchanges are made between consumers (patients)and providers (doctors and the producers/suppliers of medical products) grows larger and larger, replaced by a third party (in this case, the government). Patients are separated from the transaction because it is the government paying for their services through taxes accumulated from its citizens. Further government intervention in the economy, and in this case health care, leads to an expansion of this wedge. Put simply, an expansion in this wedge leads to a disregard for the costs of medical treatment, tests and operations, which may be wasteful or unnecessary, because the costs incurred are only indirectly perceptible. The government is footing the majority of the bill, and so consequences are not felt nearly as quickly as otherwise. The same phenomena occurs with regard to the possibility for innovation. Comparative effectiveness research, geared towards developing more efficient technology and streamlining the way in which overall treatment is provided, will decrease because of the seeming unimportance that direct costs have on hospitals and patients.
2010
2008
On ballot
- California Proposition 4 (parental notification for abortion)
- The Healthy Montana Kids Plan Act
- Missouri Home Care Initiative
Pending certification
- Ohio Healthy Families Act. Signatures submitted on August 8.
Legal obstacles
- Arizona Proposition 101. Arizona Secretary of State said insufficient signatures had been filed, proponents are engaging in a signature recovery effort.
- Washington I-1029. A lawsuit has been filed against this initiative because of a potentially fatal flaw in how it was drafted.
Not on ballot
- Alaska Healthcare Reform Act. (Might make 2010 ballot).
- Arizona Statewide Health Care Initiative
- California Children's Health Insurance and Youth Smoking Initiative
- California Dietary Supplement Expense
- California Healthy Californians Act
- California Right to Health Initiative
- California Secure and Affordable Health Care Act
- Colorado Fair Share Health Care Initiative
- Florida Same Service, Same Fee Initiative
- Health Care for All Ohioans Act (2008)
- Michigan Health Care Security Campaign
- Missouri Medicaid Reinstated
2007
- Alabama Funds for Health Care Costs (2007). LRCA, "Require that funds dedicated for the purpose of paying health care costs of retired state and educational employees be used for that purpose." Passed with 83.8%.
- Texas Proposition 15
- Washington Referendum 67, VR. Should a new law allowing consumers to collect triple damages from their insurance company, if the insurance company unreasonably denies a claim or violates unfair practice rules, be upheld? Passed with 57%.
2005
- California Proposition 78, LRSS. Prescription drug benefit. Failed.
- California Proposition 79, LRSS. Drug discount program. Failed.
2004
- California Mental Health Services Act also known as California Proposition 63 (2004), passed.
2002
- California Proposition 44. LRSS. Regulation of chiropractice. Passed with 79.8%.
2001
2000
1994
- North Dakota Seat Belt Issue (1994), citizen initiative, repeal North Dakota's mandatory seat belt law. It failed.
1990
1978
- North Dakota Health Care Issue (1978), citizen initiative, state control of health care costs, insurance, failed.
1976
- Utah Initiative A, a citizen-initiated measure that ended compulsory fluoridation. Passed.
1970
- South Dakota Fluoridation Measure (1970), a measure to require fluoridation, failed.
1940
- Oklahoma State Question 241, duties and qualifications for membership of the state Board of Medical Examiners, failed.
1920
- North Dakota Cigarette Legalization Issue (1920), legalizing the sale of cigarettes but prohibiting sale to minors. It failed.
1914
- California Proposition 46, create a state board of drugless physicians to regulate people who treat patients without drugs or medicine. Defeated.
