Arizona voters are set to decide on a union-backed ballot initiative that aims to limit how debt collectors can go after residents for unpaid medical bills.
The proposal, if successful, could serve as an example to progressives in other Republican-led states hoping to tackle the issue without the involvement of GOP legislators and governors. It’s the latest effort by liberal interest groups to get favored policy prescriptions enacted by doing an end-run around top state Republican officeholders. Three separate Nov. 8 ballot measures, pushed by Arizona Republicans, are seeking to make it more difficult to change state law that way.
Arizona’s Proposition 209, the Predatory Debt Collection Act, would reduce the maximum interest rates creditors can charge on outstanding medical bills to 3% from the current threshold of 10%. It also would raise the value of assets protected from debt collection, which proponents argue would protect people from facing bankruptcy or poverty due to late medical bills.
“This ballot measure protects working-class and middle-class families from losing their homes,” said Martha French, a member of Healthcare Rising Arizona, which is backing the measure. “The Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act includes common-sense updates to bring state law [into line] with current financial realities, like ensuring protections adjust to inflation and cost of living increases so that when home prices go up, protections increase too.”
Proponents say it would give Arizona residents more breathing room to pay back their medical debts without losing their cars or homes in the process. Roughly 12% of Arizona residents have medical debt, owing an average of $719, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute.
But Amber C. Russo, a spokeswoman for the lead opponent of the measure, the political action committee Protect Our Arizona, said the “extreme anti-business policies” being proposed would increase the value of assets shielded from all types of debt collectors. The measure could be expanded to outstanding bills outside of the medical realm, citing the vague language of its provisions, she added.
“Landlords that are unable to collect the money owed to them from ‘bad’ tenants will shift the cost of damages and broken leases to the ‘good’ renters in the form of higher rents,” Russo said. “Just like a big box store raises their prices to combat the expenses associated with shoplifting, ‘all’ will pay the price for ‘some.'”
Protect Our Arizona notes that the measure is being financed partially by SEIU United Healthcare Workers, a California healthcare union that has contributed around $8 million to the primary PAC supporting the proposition. The union is also backing a dialysis ballot measure in California that would impose new rules on kidney dialysis clinics across the state.
Proposition 209 is one of 10 measures on the ballot before voters in Arizona, including Proposition 308, which would allow noncitizen students to pay in-state tuition rates. If passed, it would reverse a 2006 ballot initiative that barred illegal immigrants from being eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid, among other resources for students. Other initiatives address mail-in voting, taxes, and campaign finance.
Three of the Arizona ballot measures, Proposition 128, Proposition 129, and Proposition 130, focus on the initiative and referendum process itself. The goal of these proposals is to make it harder for voters to pass amendments to the state constitution via referendum, which Arizona Republicans say has been a way to sneak in liberal policies.
These propositions are backed by conservatives who are unhappy with recent voter-approved measures. Since 2016, ballot initiatives have been used to increase Arizona’s minimum wage, require employers to provide employees with sick time, raise taxes on wealthy people, bump up teachers’ salaries, and legalize marijuana statewide (it remains illegal at the federal level, however).
The measures come amid a slew of hotly contested races that have made Arizona a key 2022 midterm election battleground. Republican nominees endorsed by former President Donald Trump face well-funded Democratic rivals for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is also attempting to win a full, six-year term after winning in a special election in 2020.
