Florida Decides News Today

(The Center Square) – A nonprofit group is gathering signatures to put Medicaid expansion in Florida on the ballot in 2026.

There’s an effort going on now to place Medicaid expansion on the 2026 ballot in Florida. WMNF's Chris Young reports.

North Carolina has ended years of opposition and opted to expand its Medicaid program in 2024, meaning four in five U.S. states have embraced a key plank of Obamacare as opponents find it harder to resist federal funding and voters force a series of red states to extend coverage.

South Dakota voters recently adopted the program, but any national momentum from that November election victory was fleeting.

South Dakota voters adopted the program last month, bypassing the state’s conservative Legislature. But only two more states have the ability to vote on Medicaid expansion, while the remaining 11 states will need to win over GOP lawmakers.

Since 2017, Medicaid expansion has been adopted in seven states where a question was placed directly on the ballot. But campaign leaders say that strategy may not work in Florida.

Republican-led legislatures have repeatedly thwarted Medicaid expansion in a dozen conservative states, despite high numbers of uninsured residents. In recent years, supporters of expansion have found success with another strategy: letting voters decide.

 

By Mitch Perry Hillsborough County PUBLISHED 4:52 PM ET Feb. 19, 2021 PUBLISHED 4:52 PM EST Feb. 19, 2021 SHARE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — While there was a lot of rhetorical harmony between Republican and Democratic members of the Hillsborough County legislative delegation at a pre-session discussion on Friday, that bonhomie shattered when ...