Voters nationwide are heading to the midterm polls Nov. 8. Several states have healthcare referendums on the ballot.
In Arizona, voters will decide if interest on medical debt should be lowered from 10 percent to 3 percent, Politico reports. The measure will also increase protection for certain equities to keep them from being taken to offset medical debt and cut the amount of weekly disposable income subject to debt collection by more than half.
In Oregon, voters will decide whether access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable healthcare is a human right under the state constitution, according to The Register-Guard. Measure 111, if passed, would rely on state lawmakers to determine how to fulfill this, the newspaper reported. The measure does not include funding in it.
In South Dakota, voters will decide on whether to expand Medicaid under the ACA. If voters approve the measure, South Dakota would be the seventh Republican-controlled state to expand Medicaid, according to Politico.
In five states, voters will either shrink or stretch restrictions on reproductive healthcare.
Vermont, California and Michigan propose "state constitutional rights" to reproductive autonomy, with California's and Michigan's measures specifically protecting contraception and abortion, per Ballotpedia.
Meanwhile, a Kentucky amendment, if passed, would specify in the state's consitution that abortion is not protected or subject to state funding. A state statute on Montana's ballot, meanwhile, seeks to require medical care for "born-alive infants" — those who breathe, have a heartbeat or show voluntary muscle movement after delivery or abortion, according to Kaiser Health News. If it passes, Montana healthcare workers who do not try to keep the fetus or infant alive will be subject to 20 years in prison and up to $50,000 in fines.