While yesterday’s vote in Missouri against national health care reform will have little substantive impact on the federal health care reform law, Republicans nonetheless are hailing it as a major victory for their side. Voters in the Show Me State overwhelmingly voted to change Missouri statutes so the mandate for insurance coverage wouldn’t apply, a symbolic gesture that everyone acknowledges is highly unlikely to have any effect on the federal health care reform law (absent major and unexpected changes to established legal precedent).
But don’t tell RNC Chairman Michael Steele, House Minority Leader John Boehner or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin that.
As we previewed for you yesterday, the Republican-written initiative was widely expected to pass. It did, by a margin of 71%-29%, thanks in large part to the GOP primaries being far more competitive and attracting more conservative (and energized) voters. The Kansas City Star reported, in fact, that 65 percent of the votes cast went to Republican primary candidates overall — and only 23 percent of voters turned out at all.
The “Health Care Freedom Act” faced little organized opposition, and several advocacy groups said that they didn’t mount any effort against it because it was only intended to set up a court battle.
Legal challenges to the results of the ballot initiative are already in the works, since both sides of the issue always believed it would head to the courts after an injunction is issued to block the measure from being enforced. The health care reform law’s mandate requiring people to carry health insurance does not actually take effect until 2014. So if Missouri’s challenge to the mandate were to be upheld, by then, the Supreme Court will likely have ruled on the constitutionality of the health care reform overhaul in one of multiple lawsuits states have already filed against the federal government.
Steele nonetheless insisted in a statement that the vote was a “significant blow” to the Obama administration, adding that it represented Missourians’ “clear message to Democrats and the Obama administration that government-run healthcare is a gross overreach of the federal government that needs to be repealed and replaced.” That’s a major pillar of the Republican agenda this fall.
Boehner (R-OH) said it proves Democrats are out of touch and asked them “to work with Republicans to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense reforms to lower costs.” He touted an issue we’ve written quite a bit about - a discharge petition to force a vote on repealing health care reform.
Palin, of course, Tweeted her response.
USA Heartland speaks! Thank you Missouri for protecting Constitution/Commerce Clause w Obamacare provision rejection; stunning message to DC
The St. Louis Business Journal spoke with Constitutional experts who say it’s clear the “politically driven” measure won’t stand up to legal scrutiny:
“The Constitution clearly states that a federal law trumps a state law when they come into direct conflict,” said Richard Reuben, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia. “The core of Proposition C, which is the opt-out provision, appears to be in direct conflict with the new federal statute.”
The AP talked to several voters who admitted they understood the vote was purely symbolic:
“To us, it symbolized everything,” said Annette Read, a tea party participant from suburban St. Louis who quit her online retail job to lead a yearlong campaign for the Missouri ballot measure. “The entire frustration in the country … how our government has misspent, how they haven’t listened to the people, this measure in general encompassed all of that.”…
“I believe that the general public has been duped about the benefits of the health care proposal,” said Mike Sampson of Jefferson City, an independent emergency management contractor, who voted for the proposition. “My guess is federal law will in fact supersede state law, but we need to send a message to the folks in Washington, D.C., that people in the hinterlands are not happy.”
Late update: Rep. Mike Pence, chair of the House Republican Conference, also issued a statement hailing passage of the ballot initiative.
“Yesterday’s vote in Missouri is a strong declaration that Americans continue to reject ObamaCare’s job-killing mandates and tax increases. By a margin of more than two-to-one, voters in Missouri rejected this government-takeover of health care that impinges on fundamental freedoms.
Additional reporting by Megan Carpentier
[Ed. note: This piece was edited after publication.]
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