Healthcare issues are peppering statewide ballots today, providing a possible window to the nation’s attitudes toward healthcare in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry is stumping for a $3 billion proposal to fund cancer research. If approved, the plan would catapult Texas to the front of the pack for research. It would guarantee $300 million a year to Texas medical centers and universities to conduct research on cures and prevention and would -- according to one source quoted in the San Antonio Express-News – position Texas as the “Silicon Valley” of cancer research.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas would be created to oversee disbursements.
A similar bill will be considered in New Jersey, where voters will cast ballots on a proposal to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research. Religious organizations are generally opposed to the bill, while politicians within the state legislature and Gov. John Corzine lead the support.
In Oregon, Measure 50 seeks to raise cigarette taxes by 84.5 cents a pack to pay for children’s health insurance. If passed, the bill would extend coverage to 100,000 children, supporters say. However, the tobacco industry is reported to have spent up to $12 million to oppose the measure.
“Passage of Measure 50 will bring upward pressure on all health insurance premiums and all health care costs,” writes Steve Buckstein, senior policy analyst and founder of Cascade Policy Institute, a think tank based in Portland, Oregon. “Providers… will have even less reason to mitigate cost increases once they have access to a huge new pot of money and patients courtesy of a dedicated tobacco tax locked into the Constitution. If the state were truly interested in cost-control here, it would design a program that lets recipients shop for coverage and gives them financial incentives to keep costs down.”
But a variety of groups, from children’s interests to religious organizations, are banding together to get out the vote among supporters.
“This measure promises to improve the quality of life for Oregonians by making it possible for children and the working poor to better access health care and medical insurance,” said Robert T. Hoshibata, resident bishop of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. “This will enable families to utilize more of their income for food and other critical necessities of life. We cannot overestimate the many related benefits that will be realized by the passage of Measure 50.”