Maine Publicly Funded Health Coverage Legislation Initiative (2023)

Maine Publicly Funded Health Coverage Legislation Initiative
Election date November 7, 2023
Topic Healthcare
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

The Maine Publicly Funded Health Coverage Legislation Initiative did not appear on the ballot in Maine as an indirect initiated state statute on November 7, 2023.

The ballot initiative would have directed a legislative joint standing committee to develop legislation that, according to the initiative text, does the following:

• "Ensures that all residents of the State possess comprehensive, publicly funded health care coverage;"
• "Contains built-in mechanisms to lower the costs of health care;"
• "Provides to every resident of the State all services determined to be medically necessary services by the board established in accordance with subsection 7;"
• " Continues the existing practice of providing health care services through public and private providers of those services;"
• "Provides residents of the State the freedom to choose their health care providers;"
• "Provides prompt payments to health care providers at prevailing rates; and"
• " Establishes a board to supervise program elements of the system of health care coverage. ..."

The ballot initiative would have directed the state Legislature to implement the legislation by 2024.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the ballot initiative is available here.

Path to the ballot

Process in Maine

In Maine, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirect initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. Petitions can be circulated for up to 18 months, but signatures must be no more than one year old to be valid. Signatures must be filed with the secretary by the 50th day of the first regular legislative session or the 25th day of the second regular session. Maine's initiative process is indirect, which means sufficient initiative petitions first go to the legislature and only go to the ballot if the legislature rejects or does not act on the initiative.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2023 ballot:

• Signatures: 67,682 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: January 26, 2023

Each petition signature is certified by the local registrar of voters. The signatures are then submitted to the secretary of state. If enough signatures are verified, the initiatives are sent to the legislature. If the legislature approves the initiative, it becomes law. If the legislature does not act on the initiative or rejects it, the initiative goes on the ballot. The legislature may submit "any amended form, substitute, or recommendation" to the people alongside the initiative; this alternative is treated as a competing measure.

Stages of this initiative

• Lawrence D. Kaplan filed the ballot initiative, which was approved for signature gathering on December 3, 2020. The ballot initiative was allowed to circulate until June 3, 2022.
• On December 30, 2021, Maine Healthcare Action, the campaign behind the initiative, announced that they would target the 2023 ballot. The campaign said, "With Covid-19 cases surging in the state, we’ve decided we need a little more time to gather the remaining signatures we need to put this important issue of Universal Healthcare to Maine voters." The campaign reported they had collected more than 40,000 signatures.
• On April 9, 2022, the Maine Healthcare Action campaign announced the suspension of its campaign.

See also

2023 measures

• 2023 ballot measures
• Healthcare on the ballot
• 2023 legislative sessions

Maine

• Maine ballot measures
• Maine ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls