Obamacare helping millions register to vote [View all]

[babylonsister]

Win/win!!


Obamacare helping millions register to vote
03/28/14 06:54 AM—Updated 03/28/14 11:42 AM
By Zachary Roth


It’s the right’s worst nightmare: Obamacare working to boost not just the number of Americans who have affordable health insurance—but also the number who are registered to vote. And it could be coming true.

Take it from Rush Limbaugh.

“What do you really think is going on?” the conservative radio host asked his listeners while discussing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last October. “Voter registration. In addition to you going to get your health care, there is obviously massive Democrat voter registration going on at these exchanges.”

Limbaugh isn’t entirely wrong.

Under the terms of an agreement announced this week between California and an alliance of good government groups, the state will mail voter registration forms to 4 million people who applied for Obamacare via California’s online exchange. The deal could end up creating 400,000 new registered Golden State voters—the actual numbers will be available later this year.

Nationwide, Obamacare could ultimately be responsible for registering anywhere from 3 to 7 million voters—potentially over 10% of the total number of eligible voters who aren’t registered today—over the next eight years.

“We think it’s a huge opportunity to reach people,” Sarah Brannon of Project Vote, which worked on the California settlement, said of the health care law.

Here’s why: Under the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which aimed to boost voter registration, people applying for public assistance—as well as DMV customers—must be offered the chance to register to vote. That means every state insurance exchange like California’s, as well as the federal exchange, will need to ask people whether they want to register. Even those people who end up getting covered via Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion or through other parts of the law, rather than through the private market, will still be offered the chance to register to vote.

The numbers are necessarily ballpark figures—but they’re impressive nonetheless.

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http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obamacare-helping-millions-register-vote?cid=sm_facebook