• About
  • Contact Us
The Filipino American Post
Advertisement
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • PH News
    • World News
    Senate presidency shaping up as a 3-way race among Escudero, Sotto & Marcos

    Senate presidency shaping up as a 3-way race among Escudero, Sotto & Marcos

    Go or no go? Impeachment vs. VP Sara hangs in the balance

    Go or no go? Impeachment vs. VP Sara hangs in the balance

    Marcos Cabinet shakeup has few surprises

    Marcos Cabinet shakeup has few surprises

    Ex-solon sent back to PH by East Timor to face raps

    Ex-solon sent back to PH by East Timor to face raps

    Lawyers debate after Court of Appeals invalidates De Lima’s acquittal

    Palace asks Roque to return after arrest warrant is issued

  • Community
  • EVENTS
  • Opinion
    • All
    • Column
    • Legal
    NaFFAA Honors Pope Francis a.k.a. Lolo Kiko

    NaFFAA Honors Pope Francis a.k.a. Lolo Kiko

    In this column, we will aim to raise awareness about osteoporosis, highlighting the importance of early screening and timely diagnosis, with a special focus on older women in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

    In this column, we will aim to raise awareness about osteoporosis, highlighting the importance of early screening and timely diagnosis, with a special focus on older women in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

    Berberine for diabetes

    The two important Medicare enrollment period will end on Mach 31, 2025. Additionally, be sure not to miss the application open period for home energy assistance.

    The two important Medicare enrollment period will end on Mach 31, 2025. Additionally, be sure not to miss the application open period for home energy assistance.

    Pinapalakas ng California ang Bayad na Mga Benepisyo sa Pag-iwan ng Pamilya at Kapansanan upang Magtala ng Mga Antas para sa Mga Bagong Claim na Naihain noong 2025

    Pinapalakas ng California ang Bayad na Mga Benepisyo sa Pag-iwan ng Pamilya at Kapansanan upang Magtala ng Mga Antas para sa Mga Bagong Claim na Naihain noong 2025

    In recent years, rising inflation has made it harder for many seniors to pay their expenses. This month, we’ll look at programs that can help with the cost of groceries and health care. If your income and resources are limited, you may qualify for assistance from federal and/or state programs.

    In recent years, rising inflation has made it harder for many seniors to pay their expenses. This month, we’ll look at programs that can help with the cost of groceries and health care. If your income and resources are limited, you may qualify for assistance from federal and/or state programs.

    Vital medical tips

    Ginagalang ng California ang Kapangyarihan ng Iyong Boto

    Ginagalang ng California ang Kapangyarihan ng Iyong Boto

    De-stressing

  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Arts & Culture
    • Business
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
    It’s a new day for health care and technology

    It’s a new day for health care and technology

    The Colorful Pahiyas Festival

    The Colorful Pahiyas Festival

    The Magical Guyabano

    The Magical Guyabano

    What Your Moles Say About You

    What Your Moles Say About You

    Flores De Mayo: HONORING MAMA MARY

    Flores De Mayo: HONORING MAMA MARY

  • Online Newspaper
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • PH News
    • World News
    Senate presidency shaping up as a 3-way race among Escudero, Sotto & Marcos

    Senate presidency shaping up as a 3-way race among Escudero, Sotto & Marcos

    Go or no go? Impeachment vs. VP Sara hangs in the balance

    Go or no go? Impeachment vs. VP Sara hangs in the balance

    Marcos Cabinet shakeup has few surprises

    Marcos Cabinet shakeup has few surprises

    Ex-solon sent back to PH by East Timor to face raps

    Ex-solon sent back to PH by East Timor to face raps

    Lawyers debate after Court of Appeals invalidates De Lima’s acquittal

    Palace asks Roque to return after arrest warrant is issued

  • Community
  • EVENTS
  • Opinion
    • All
    • Column
    • Legal
    NaFFAA Honors Pope Francis a.k.a. Lolo Kiko

    NaFFAA Honors Pope Francis a.k.a. Lolo Kiko

    In this column, we will aim to raise awareness about osteoporosis, highlighting the importance of early screening and timely diagnosis, with a special focus on older women in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

    In this column, we will aim to raise awareness about osteoporosis, highlighting the importance of early screening and timely diagnosis, with a special focus on older women in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

    Berberine for diabetes

    The two important Medicare enrollment period will end on Mach 31, 2025. Additionally, be sure not to miss the application open period for home energy assistance.

    The two important Medicare enrollment period will end on Mach 31, 2025. Additionally, be sure not to miss the application open period for home energy assistance.

    Pinapalakas ng California ang Bayad na Mga Benepisyo sa Pag-iwan ng Pamilya at Kapansanan upang Magtala ng Mga Antas para sa Mga Bagong Claim na Naihain noong 2025

    Pinapalakas ng California ang Bayad na Mga Benepisyo sa Pag-iwan ng Pamilya at Kapansanan upang Magtala ng Mga Antas para sa Mga Bagong Claim na Naihain noong 2025

    In recent years, rising inflation has made it harder for many seniors to pay their expenses. This month, we’ll look at programs that can help with the cost of groceries and health care. If your income and resources are limited, you may qualify for assistance from federal and/or state programs.

    In recent years, rising inflation has made it harder for many seniors to pay their expenses. This month, we’ll look at programs that can help with the cost of groceries and health care. If your income and resources are limited, you may qualify for assistance from federal and/or state programs.

    Vital medical tips

    Ginagalang ng California ang Kapangyarihan ng Iyong Boto

    Ginagalang ng California ang Kapangyarihan ng Iyong Boto

    De-stressing

  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Arts & Culture
    • Business
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
    It’s a new day for health care and technology

    It’s a new day for health care and technology

    The Colorful Pahiyas Festival

    The Colorful Pahiyas Festival

    The Magical Guyabano

    The Magical Guyabano

    What Your Moles Say About You

    What Your Moles Say About You

    Flores De Mayo: HONORING MAMA MARY

    Flores De Mayo: HONORING MAMA MARY

  • Online Newspaper
No Result
View All Result
The Filipino American Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Community

As health care access passes in state ballots, so do ballot restrictions

by Selen Ozturk
December 5, 2024
in Community
0
As health care access passes in state ballots, so do ballot restrictions
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As state ballot measures advancing health access are advancing nationwide, so are those restricting ballot access.

In 2023 alone, 75 bills were introduced in state legislatures to make the ballot measure process harder for voters to use; in 2024 so far, there have been 103 such bills.

“Ballot measures are a form of direct democracy, across party lines. They let voters make meaningful change on issues they care about, even if they’re not being addressed in their state legislatures” — particularly health issues, said Avenel Joseph, interim executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a Friday, November 22 Ethnic Media Services briefing about ballot access.

The ballot measure landscape 

A recent study by Health Affairs found that, of the 534 US state referenda and constitutional amendment ballot initiatives passed between 2014 and 2023, 63.5 percent were health care-related, most commonly concerning abortion and Medicaid.

Avenel Joseph, interim executive vice-president, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, highlights policies that support better health outcomes that have been passed through ballot measures

In the November 2024 elections alone, voters in seven states passed ballot measures guaranteeing abortion rights in their state constitutions; voters in Nebraska, Alaska and Missouri passed measures approving paid worker sick leave; Missourians voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour; and measures restricting the ballot measure process failed in Arizona and North Dakota.

“It’s no coincidence that efforts to restrict ballot measure access are increasing while advances for a more just America are passing at the ballot box through policies like paid leave, minimum wage and abortion access,” said Joseph.

“Often, these restrictions are made because legislators say it would protect the state from influence by outside politics or money,” she continued. “But elected officials are often more likely to further corporate or partisan interests than are the communities that they represent, who are coming together to collect those signatures … while efforts to restrict ballot measures frequently come from partisan special interest groups.”

In Florida this November, for instance, although over 57 percent of voters approved protecting abortion access up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, the measure failed to pass due to a 2004 constitutional amendment, backed by the GOP and supporting business interests, which raised the threshold to pass constitutional amendments from 50 percent to 60 percent of voters.

“Whenever we get community voices not only heard but enacted on, there’s going to be creative backlash, like raising the threshold,” added Joseph. “This is because policies directly beneficial to an average person, like the paid leave and minimum wage measure in Missouri, may not be as beneficial to corporate interests.”

Missouri

“The ballot measure process has existed in Missouri for over 100 years, and it serves as a crucial check on our legislature, especially in years when the latter isn’t meeting the needs of our people,” said Richard von Glahn, political director of Missouri Jobs for Justice.

Before the November 2024 passage of Proposition A, guaranteeing paid sick leave and $15 minimum wage by 2026, as many as one in three working Missourians — about 730,000 — lacked access to a single minute of guaranteed paid time off.

Richard Von Glahn, political director, Missouri Jobs with Justice, shares a quote from a leader in the Fight for 15 minimum wage increase movement, on the importance of wages that allow people to flourish

“This is part of access to health care, too,” explained von Glahn, who worked as campaign manager for Proposition A. “If you have insurance but you can’t afford to take a day away from work, that insurance isn’t worth anything to you because you can’t use it … living check-to-check.”

In Missouri, a full-time minimum wage worker currently makes less than $500 a week before taxes — not a living wage in any county in the state, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator.

To put Prop A on the ballot, nearly 900 Missourian volunteers gathered over 210,000 signatures; in the final 10 days of the election, over 1500 volunteers knocked on over 150,000 doors to tell people about the measure, which passed with a 58 percent majority.

“A leader of this campaign, a fast food worker named Fran Marion from Kansas City, told a story about when her daughter was sick and staying home from school. She had to leave that child to go to work and put food in the pantry, and her child asked: ‘Why won’t you stay and take care of me?’” said von Glahn. “To feel like you can’t be there for a child in need — no one should have to make those choices.”

Over 500 businesses, mostly small, supported Prop A “because they know that safe, fairly treated workers are what drive economic growth by spending their income back in local economies,” he added. “Nor is it a partisan divide — in rural counties, as many as one in four workers voted both for Donald Trump and Proposition A … Ballot initiatives are synonymous with whether or not we’re placing exploitative profit above the needs of workers in our community.”

Protecting ballot access

“Just because we won something on Election Day, doesn’t mean the work is over, especially in these coming months,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) Foundation, adding that ballot measures, trends and attacks are tracked nationwide through the BISC Ballot Hub. 

Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation, explains the process of getting a measure on the ballot. She notes that the process varies state to state.

“While we make sure that these measures are implemented well, we also may face major attacks” through bills raising the threshold percentage needed to pass measures; requiring more complicated language to get the measure on the ballot; or introducing restrictive geographic distribution requirements that make it harder to get signatures, “especially for underfunded grassroots organizations in rural communities,” she continued.

This November, for example, Issue 1 — an Ohio measure which would have created a citizen commission to draw congressional and state legislative districts, thereby making it harder to gerrymander redistricting — failed 46 percent against a 50 percent threshold, largely due to confusing ballot language.

Also in this election cycle, Florida used taxpayer funds to oppose an approved ballot measure by sending police to the homes of people who signed a validated petition supporting Amendment 4, a ballot measure which would have overturned the state’s six-week abortion ban; although most voters supported it, the measure fell short of the 60 percent threshold.

 “In any other state, 57 percent would be a significant majority. They were able to get 1 million more votes than Governor Ron DeSantis,” said Figueredo. “We expect to see pushback like this in other states as well, where many down-ballot measures over-perform elected state officials … because people look at these issues without seeing a party ‘D’ or ‘R’ next to them and think, ‘Yeah, I’m struggling to make ends meet. I want to raise the minimum wage, that’s a no-brainer.”

“It speaks to the distress with government institutions that we have now in the US,” she added. “People trust themselves and their communities first, and ballot measures can be a bridge to restore that trust to our democratic institutions by letting people directly improve the material conditions of their health.”

ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Domestic workers are America’s most undervalued resource

Next Post

PH Consulate receives bronze bas-relief of Filipino World War II hero Magdalena Leones

Related Posts

What happens if you help an undocumented immigrant?
Community

Despite higher Covid risk, pregnant women are now ineligible for vaccine

June 6, 2025
What happens if you help an undocumented immigrant?
Community

Over 200 ralliers demand Newsom fund domestic violence victims

June 6, 2025
What happens if you help an undocumented immigrant?
Community

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: 2025 Migration Advocacy and Media (MAM) Awards

June 6, 2025
Next Post
PH Consulate receives bronze bas-relief of Filipino World War II hero Magdalena Leones

PH Consulate receives bronze bas-relief of Filipino World War II hero Magdalena Leones

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Recent News

Senate presidency shaping up as a 3-way race among Escudero, Sotto & Marcos
News

Senate presidency shaping up as a 3-way race among Escudero, Sotto & Marcos

by Beting Lagyo Dolor
June 6, 2025
0

With the next Congress set to start soon, all eyes will be on the Senate which will convene as an...

Go or no go? Impeachment vs. VP Sara hangs in the balance

Go or no go? Impeachment vs. VP Sara hangs in the balance

June 6, 2025
Marcos Cabinet shakeup has few surprises

Marcos Cabinet shakeup has few surprises

June 6, 2025
Ex-solon sent back to PH by East Timor to face raps

Ex-solon sent back to PH by East Timor to face raps

June 6, 2025
What happens if you help an undocumented immigrant?

Despite higher Covid risk, pregnant women are now ineligible for vaccine

June 6, 2025
The Filipino American Post

© 2025
THE FILIPINO AMERICAN POST

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact Us

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • NEWS
    • PH News
    • World News
  • COMMUNITY
  • EVENTS
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • SPORTS
  • OPINION
  • LIFESTYLE
    • Business
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
    • Arts & Culture
  • ONLINE NEWSPAPER

© 2025
THE FILIPINO AMERICAN POST