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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Missouri Voters Reject Mandatory Insurance

ST. LOUIS (CN) - In what Republicans tout as a sign of what's to come in November, Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision in President Obama's health care reform bill.

About 71 percent of Missouri voters supported Proposition C during Tuesday's primary election. Proposition C prohibits the government from requiring citizens to carry health insurance or from penalizing those who don't have it.

Many believe the measure is mostly symbolic, as federal law trumps state law. The vote comes less than 100 days before the mid-term election.

The intent of the requirement to carry health insurance is meant to broaden the pool of healthy people covered, thereby holding down premiums as a whole. Critics of the requirement claim Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by including it in the reform.

Missouri is the first state to challenge the reform in a referendum. Arizona and Oklahoma will have similar measures on their ballots in November and legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana and Virginia have passed similar measures without putting them on the ballot.

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