News Archive

Health care issues were a major driver of voting across the country this week, and IU McKinney Law Professor Nicolas Terry has identified some key takeaways from the health-related ballot measures and newly elected candidates that emerged from Tuesday’s election.

Writing for the Harvard Law Petrie-Flom Center’s Bill of Health blog, Professor Terry reported on health-related measures in dozens of states, including issues such as expansion of Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, abortion rights, rights for transgender people, nurse-to-patient ratios, legalization of marijuana and decriminalizing drug crimes.

During this midterm election, “a plurality of voters identified healthcare as the most important issue in the midterm election. The next two years may help us identify exactly what that means. Is it code for single payer universal coverage, a vote for ACA status quo, or merely a coalescence around the prohibitions on preexisting condition clauses?” Professor Terry wrote.

Professor Terry is the Hall Render Professor of Law at IU McKinney School of Law, where he serves as the Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health and teaches healthcare and health policy courses. His recent scholarship has dealt with health privacy, mobile health, the Internet of Things, Big Data, AI, and the opioid overdose epidemic. He serves on IU’s Grand Challenges Scientific Leadership Team, working on the addictions crisis and is the PI on addictions law and policy Grand Challenge grants.