The health insurance exchanges set up under Obamacare are required by federal law to help millions of uninsured Americans register to vote. But the Obama administration is refusing to fully comply with that law, according to two voting rights organizations. Heres what the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has to do with voting: The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), known as the Motor Voter law, requires departments of motor vehicles and other agencies that provide public assistance to offer voter registration services. The new health care exchanges fall under this requirement, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The federally-run exchange (which was set up to provide a health insurance portal for residents in states where Republican governors refused to establish their own insurance marketplaces) and several state-run exchanges provide a link to the federal voter registration website in their health insurance applications. But the Motor Voter law requires that covered agencies do more than this, and in the case of Obamacare, that means the navigators hired by HHS who walk uninsured Americans through the sign-up process must also offer to guide applicants through the voter registration process. Yet in a letter sent to the White House on Thursday, voting rights groups Demos and Project Vote charge that HHS is not complying with this aspect of the law. This looks like [the administration is] running from a political fight, says Lawrence Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota and author of Health Care Reform and American Politics. -Erika
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:47:38 +0000
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