TALLAHASSEE – With Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature continuing its decade-long opposition to Medicaid expansion, advocacy groups now have launched an effort to get the idea before voters in two years.
Raising at least $12 million to collect the almost 1 million signatures needed to qualify for the November 2026 ballot is a goal of Florida Decides Healthcare, whose organizers say it could bring health care to some 1.4 million lower-income residents.
If approved for the ballot and passed by no less than 60% of voters statewide, the measure would create an amendment to the state’s constitution.
Florida is among only 10 states that still refuse Medicaid expansion, which began in January 2014 under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
Each of the refusing states has Republicans in command of their legislatures – but Florida, with 2.5 million uninsured, also has one of the nation’s highest shares of residents without health coverage.
“The need to bring this policy across the finish line has never been greater,” said Jake Flaherty, campaign manager for the ballot effort, which formally launched Thursday.
Health care a session focus — but not Medicaid expansion
Health care is a focus of Florida 60-day legislative session, now approaching its midpoint.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, is promoting signature legislation dubbed “Live Healthy,” designed to boost the state’s health care workforce and give Floridians more access to care.
But like Gov. Ron DeSantis and his predecessor, now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Republican legislative leaders also pledge that Florida will not consider expanding Medicaid, which would allow Floridians earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, about $41,400 for a family of four, to qualify for health insurance.
The state would qualify for $5.6 billion in federal aid that would come in the first two years of expansion, and about $4.4 billion annually after that.
The Florida Policy Institute and Florida Voices for Health are among the organizations backing the ballot initiative.
Effort inspired by other successes
Leaders of the effort say they’ve been inspired by the successes of measures aimed at this year’s ballot to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights in Florida – although both measures are still awaiting a final step of state Supreme Court approval of these ballot proposals.
Alison Holmes, a Seminole County resident with a 20-year-old disabled son, J.J., said he has been on a state waiting list for 17 years to receive care. Medicaid expansion would ease some of her family’s health care worries, she added.
“I’m physically, emotionally and financially wiped out,” Holmes said. “But doing this without any health coverage is terrifying.”
Another ‘no’ to expansion2024 Session: Health care a driving issue — but don’t talk about Medicaid expansion
Once upon a time in Florida…Florida Medicaid expansion passes Senate, faces dead end in House
Organizers of the latest ballot effort promoted a similar campaign in 2019 that was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Thursday, leaders said polls show an overwhelming percentage of Floridians would support Medicaid expansion and that it’s needed to offset needs particularly acute in rural communities and for the hospitals that serve them.
Rural hospitals are under financial pressure because they serve a huge volume of uninsured residents.
“There are so many parts of our budget and so many parts of our health care system that would benefit” from expansion, said Holly Bullard, chief strategy and development officer at Florida Policy Institute.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport