Bruce Japsen Senior Contributor Jun 30, 2020,11:47pm
EDT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Voters in traditionally Republican Oklahoma
supported a ballot measure to extend Medicaid benefits to 200,000 low-income
adults in a vote testing the popularity of the Affordable Care Act during the
Covid-19 pandemic.
The vote by a narrow margin of Oklahomans to
expand Medicaid under the ACA is a huge political blow to Republican Gov. Kevin
Stitt, who opposed the ballot initiative and the Donald Trump White House,
which just last week took more steps to try to repeal the ACA, the 10-year-old
law also known as Obamacare that has expanded health coverage to more than 22
million Americans.
With 100% of precincts reporting, the Medicaid
expansion measure known as Question 802 had 50.5% support, which was a lead of
more than 6,000 votes out of more than 673,000 cast, according to national media tallies and the Tulsa World.
“In an election year that will be focused on
health care, Oklahomans just delivered the first big win,” said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of The Fairness
Project, which worked with supporters of Medicaid expansion in
Oklahoma and has helped several other states win Medicaid expansion at the
ballot box.
“Voters in a deep red state became the first
in the country to put Medicaid expansion in their state constitution to protect
it,” Schleifer said Tuesday night. “Americans are tired of politicians ignoring
the problem or worse, trying to take their health care away. Americans aren’t
going to stand for that type of approach anymore.”
The Oklahoma effort to become the 37th state to
expand Medicaid is just the latest momentum in Republican-leaning states where
lawmakers and governors have historically blocked efforts to expand health
insurance coverage to more poor Americans under the ACA in the past.
The vote to expand Medicaid in Oklahoma to
nearly 200,000 people in the state comes as cases of the coronavirus strain
Covid-19 surge and some worried that the pandemic and risk of infection
hampered turnout in a state that has seen thousands lose their jobs and
healthcare coverage. Medicaid expansion is expected to enable more Oklahomans
to become eligible for such health coverage as unemployment rises and people
lose their employer-based health benefits.
It’s the latest win for The Fairness Project,
which has also been working on an August 4 Medicaid expansion ballot initiative
in Missouri in hopes it follows the lead of Oklahoma and successful 2018
ballot initiatives in Nebraska, Idaho and Utah. Those states, like Maine in 2017, bypassed Republican
governors and legislatures to expand Medicaid by public referendum.
The Fairness Project has said the “Yes on 802” effort would “put
Medicaid expansion into the state’s constitution.”
Oklahoma had been one of 14 remaining holdout
states that have already missed out on generous federal funding of the
Medicaid expansion. From 2014 through 2016, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion
population was funded 100% with federal dollars. The federal government still
picks up 90% or more of Medicaid expansion. It’s a better deal than before the
ACA, when Medicaid programs were funded via a much less generous split between
state and federal tax dollars.
“Oklahoma was an inspiring grassroots effort
built on a foundation three years in the making,” Schleifer said. “What we
started in Maine in 2017 has become a movement across the country. We are
proving that Americans are ready to rise above partisan politics and put the
health of their communities first. That was true in Oklahoma and we’re
witnessing the same thing in Missouri.”
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