We are days away from the mid-term elections. Don’t worry, this isn’t another piece to read about how the Senate could hang in the balance for weeks; or how one party or another might retain or take control of any chamber of the Congress.
This is about what there is on the ballot in the states regarding healthcare. The National Conference of State Legislatures has a wealth of information on its website regarding what is going on at the state level. You can take a look at what states are doing with respect to various aspects of the Affordable Care Act. It is a lot so you can look at that information by topic as well.
Among the many resources and reports is a data base that contains all of the state ballot initiatives that are proposed. You can sort this data base in several ways, including topic. A look at healthcare yields 11 initiatives. Some are related to bond issues to raise funds, but here are a few of the more interesting ones:
- Use of Investigational Drugs – Arizona’s Proposition 303 would allow a manufacturer of a drug, biologic or device product to make it available to a terminally ill patient based solely on the recommendation of a physician and classifies any attempt by a state official or agent to block access thereto as a class 1 misdemeanor.
- Drug and Alcohol Testing of Physicians – Proposition 46 is on the ballot in California and requires drug and alcohol testing of doctors and reporting of a positive test to the California Medical Board. It requires the board to suspend such a physician pending investigation of a positive test and take disciplinary action if the doctor was impaired while on duty. Requires health care practitioners to report any doctor suspected of drug or alcohol impairment, among other things.
- Birth Control – Illinois is posing the question to voters – Shall any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides prescription drug coverage be required to include prescription birth control as part of that coverage?”
- Pharmacy Ownership – North Dakota is asking voters if the requirement that a pharmacy be owned by a licensed pharmacist should be removed.
- Inclusion of Providers on Insurer Provider List – South Dakota has a measure on the ballot that would require all insurers to list all providers who are willing and who meet the conditions for participation that have been established by an insurer to be on the insurers list of providers.
One can sort on other areas besides healthcare to get a good view of what is going on at a state level with regard to a whole host of topics. Check it out.
