Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 - 10:34
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 09:59
Missouri votes overwhelmingly for a ballot issue opposing the individual mandate in health reform, while numerous significant pieces of the overhaul are set to take effect next month, in today's health reform news.
Missouri voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to support a ballot issue opposing the individual mandate in the health overhaul, in a largely symbolic political demonstration that is a sideshow to two different legal challenges. The largely Republican turnout in the primary vote approved the ballot issue with 71 percent in favor. The mandate to purchase health insurance or face penalties does not take effect until 2014. Legal challenges against the mandate brought by the state of Virginia and by numerous states coming together in a Florida case will likely have resolved whether the mandate is constitutional before 2014 rolls around. The vote in Missouri has no practical impact -- beyond the political -- in the short-term, although the passage of the ballot measure would likely give the state the standing it needs to sue the federal government if it chooses to do so.
Read The Wall Street Journal's story on the vote here: http://bit.ly/9rEqWc
Read The New York Times' account here: http://nyti.ms/bIeYp9
In other news, The Associated Press has provided a useful rundown (http://bit.ly/cid8aL) of the significant health reform measures that are slated to take effect next month. Many of these elements have found popularity among the public, and are the next large measures to be rolled out after the high-risk pool to cover those with pre-existing conditions. The next round of measures are designed to expand coverage and limit insurance companies' abilities to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions in the next few years leading up to the full rollout of health reform in 2014 -- when the individual mandate (presuming it is upheld by the courts) and state-based insurance exchanges take effect.
Among the measures set to take effect next month are:
_ Adult children will be able to receive dependent coverage up to age 26.
_ Insurers won't be able to turn away children in the individual market because of a pre-existing condition, although they will be able to set open-enrollment periods to minimize adverse selection.
_ Lifetime limits on insurance coverage will be banned.
