Health care—including access to affordable care, coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and the Republican Party's attempts to repeal Obamacare and limit the number of Americans who can obtain insurance—is the No. 1 issue Democrats are running on in the 2018 midterms. Unsurprisingly, several states are also voting directly on ballot measures related to health care, including several affecting abortion rights.
As shown on the map at the top of this post, four red states—Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, and Utah—are voting on measures to either expand Medicaid under Obamacare or make existing expansions permanent. If these measures all pass, they could bring affordable health care to an estimated 400,000 Americans. All of these measures are only statutory, though, so vindictive Republican lawmakers and governors could theoretically undo them even if they pass (although they'd need a two-thirds supermajority in Nebraska). But in an important development, Idaho Republican Brad Little has said he'll respect the outcome of the initiative if he's elected governor, which looks very likely.
Unfortunately, efforts to promote access to affordable health care aren’t the only healthcare-related measures on the ballot. Republicans in Alabama and West Virginia have placed constitutional amendments on their ballots establishing that there's no right to abortion or public funding of abortion, and now that the Supreme Court has five ultra-conservative justices on the bench who are poised to gut Roe v. Wade, these states could soon ban abortion outright. Anti-choice activists also put an amendment to ban public funding of abortion on the ballot in Oregon, but it faces much steeper obstacles to passing in this strongly pro-choice state.
You can find a table summarizing these measures below, and you can view our full list of measures to watch on a variety of topics in this spreadsheet. Our spreadsheet details whether each measure was placed on the ballot by elected representatives or whether it was directly initiated by voters, as well as whether it's a statute or amends a state constitution or local government charter. To read our first post in this series on ballot measures affecting voting rights, please click here.
| Jurisdiction |
Name |
Proposal |
| Alabama |
Amendment 2 |
Establishes no right to an abortion or funding of abortions |
| Idaho |
Proposition 2 |
Expands Medicaid under Obamacare |
| Montana |
I-185 |
Eliminate 2019 expiration date for Medicaid expansion and raises tobacco taxes to pay for it and other healthcare services |
| Nebraska |
Initiative 427 |
Expands Medicaid under Obamacare |
| Oregon |
Measure 106 |
Bans public funding for abortions |
| Utah |
Proposition 3 |
Expands Medicaid under Obamacare |
| West Virginia |
Amendment 1 |
Establishes no right to an abortion or funding of abortions |
