Missouri's Proposition C - Largely Misunderstood

Missouri's Proposition C seems to continually be oversimplified and misrepresented in the media. All too often it is viewed as a vote either for or against health care reform, or as a proposition that is only about federally mandated health care insurance. Neither one of these depictions are correct.

First of all, it is not a vote either for or against health care reform. Not only is this too simplistic, it's just ridiculous. It would be safe to say that 100% of United States citizens want health care reform. Everybody wants our health care system to be better than it is now and for costs to be lower. Therefore, it doesn't make any sense to say that someone is against health care reform. Since there are a variety of problems with the current state of health care in the U.S. and costs seem to be out of control, it would be difficult to find a U.S. citizen who would say that they would like for the health care system to stay exactly the way it is.

Proposition C is also not a proposition that is geared exclusively towards mandatory health care coverage. There is a statement included in Proposition C that addresses a tax penalty for failing to carry medical insurance, however that alone is not the only issue on Proposition C.

Missouri's Proposition C does indeed contain a clause directed towards the federal mandatory healthcare insurance that is set to go into effect in 2014.  Essentially, the Propositon C does not nullify that mandatory requirement, it simply forbids any kind of tax penalty being imposed on a Missouri citizen that does not elect to carry healthcare insurance.  Without the tax penalty, the mandatory health insurance requirement essentially carries no force or weight, so in a sense, it can be argued that Proposition C is an attempt to nullify that particular aspect of the federal healthcare reform.

In addition to the clause regarding mandatory health care coverage, Proposition C also states that a Missouri citizen cannot be barred from paying a health care provider directly for health care services.  The federal health care reform carries a requirement that anyone paying for health care services is required to pay for such services through some sort of medical insurance plan or other qualified health care plan.  Essentially this is an arm twisting trick of the federal law that is another attempt to force people to purchase medical insurance.  Can you imagine a patient not being able to pay his or her doctor for services received because they don't have a medical insurance policy?

An additional clause contained in proposition C has to do with how the liquidated assets of insurance companies that would go out of business in Missouri.  This clause on the ballot was extremely vague, and it is difficult to try to even guess what ramifications it may have.  The verbage on the ballot regarding this is as follows, "Shall the Missouri Statutes be amended to: Modify laws regarding the liquidation of certain domestic insurance companies?"  What this exactly means, is anyone's guess.

The full verbage of Proposition C as presented on the Missouri August 2010 ballot is as follows:

• Deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services?
• Modify laws regarding the liquidation of certain domestic insurance companies?

The primary election held on Tuesday, August 3rd in Missouri showed Proposition C to pass by over 70% of voters that showed up at the polls that day.  Proponents of Proposition C, such as Missouri State Senator Jane Cunningham state that 70% of Missouri residents do not want to be forced to purchase health care insurance.

Personally, I think this is a drastic oversimplified interpretation of the results.  It doesn't make sense that 70% of Missouri voters would not want mandatory health care, because in order for that to be true, 70% of Missouri residents would have to be without health care and would not want to have to purchase it.  It's safe to say that the majority of Missouri residents already have some type of health care whether it is private or through their employers.  Therefore, the majority of Missourians will not be affected by the mandatory requirement.

A more accurate interpretation of the election results would be that a large majority of Missouri voters are uncomfortable with President Obama's health care reform measures in general.  Proposition C simply gave Missourians the vehicle whereby they could express their dissatisfaction and they took advantage of the opportunity.

One of the many reasons voters are put off with President Obama's Health Care plan is the fact that inappropriate and unrelated items were slipped into the bill.  Section 9006 of the health care bill is an item that has received much publicity.  It's the item that requires businesses to submit a 1099 to each and every vendor that they spend over $600 with in any given tax year.

Why in the world is an IRS tax related item smuggled into the health care reform bill?  U.S. voters are asking themselves the same question and are put out by the fact that they see this kind of game playing going on by the politicians in Washington.  It's sneaky tactics like this that cause citizens to wonder what else the President and Congress might be trying to slip through undetected.

Not only that, but the health care bill that was passed by Congress is a 2,409 page document.  The sheer unreasonable massive size of the bill leads many voters to question whether or not their senators and state representatives have even read the entire document.  Rumors circulate on the web that many senators and representatives indeed have not read the entire bill.  How this information is collected and whether or not it is heresay I'm not sure.

Now that Missouri's Proposition C has passed, what happens next?  Many are under the misunderstanding that passage of MO Proposition C simply ends the issue.  However, that is incorrect.  Basically, the passage of Proposition C creates a situation where we have a federal law and a state law that are in direct conflict with each other.  This is a situation that has to be addressed and resolved.

Over the next couple of years we will see this issue processed through our judicial system to resolve the conflict.  In the meantime, several other states have similar items appearing on their ballots in November of 2010.  It could be that Missouri's landslide passage of Proposition C is setting a precedent that will encourage many other states to pass similar measures.  Essentially, it is going to be giving President Obama a very powerful form of feedback from the U.S. citizens regarding their opinion of his health care reform.

Probably the most important point to be made here is that voters are not voting for or against health care reform.  Rather, they are voting on the way the health care reform bill has been packaged.  In other words, they are voting on the form of the health care reform.