A White House official
told Talking Points Memo Wednesday that, contrary to claims two left-leaning groups
reported that were spotlighted by
Mother Jones magazine, Americans
will be able to register to vote when they apply for subsidized health insurance at the mandated exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. The federal exchanges will operate in 36 states.
Mother Jones had reported Tuesday that the two groups, Demos and Project Vote, were convinced the Department of Health and Human Services might be going all wobbly on the plan to mandate that voter registration be offered at the federal exchanges under the 20-year-old National Voter Registration Act. That's commonly known as the Motor Voter law. It requires government agencies providing government services to give clients the opportunity to register to vote. The Obama administration has been adamant that this should apply to the federal health exchanges. State-run insurance exchanges are also covered by the Motor Voter law. But if the mandate weren't required of the feds, it's hard to imagine that many states would not also opt out.
When contacted by MJ's Erika Eichelberger, Demos and Project Vote backed off a bit and said they were less certain that HHS was retreating on the requirement. One version of the groups' August report saying the requirement was no longer certain has been removed from their website.
The GOP has attacked the Motor Voter law and likewise the registration provision under the insurance exchanges. As Eichelberger reported, Republicans have called the health exchanges "Democrat Party front organizations." At a time when Republicans have ramped up their efforts to suppress the vote of low-income and minority Americans, the last thing they want is to have their efforts undercut when lots of such individuals show up to apply for subsidized insurance and simultaneously register to vote—most likely for the party that put the insurance plan into place:
GOP opposition to signing up new voters through the health insurance exchanges has been fierce. Right-wing talk show yeller Rush Limbaugh said in June that it shows "the purpose of Obamacare [...] It's about building a permanent, undefeatable, always-funded Democrat majority." In March, Republicans on the House Ways and Means committee worried about how Obama-friendly "associations like the now-defunct ACORN"—such as FamiliesUSA and AARP that the administration will fund to help sign up the uninsured—would use applicants' voting information. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) wrote a letter to HHS this past spring, charging that the health care law "does not give your Department an interest in whether individual Americans choose to vote," and asking HHS to provide justification for including voter registration questions in health insurance applications.
Legal scholars and others have also weighed in, with less hyperventilating, on why the exchanges should or should not be covered by Motor Voter. Among the arguments is that some people might be led to believe that registering to vote is a requirement for getting the subsidy.
But, wrote TPM's Dylan Scott, an Obama administration official said Tuesday afternoon that reports the voter registration requirement would not be enforced are "inaccurate."
