Medicaid expansion could be on the 2026 ballot in Florida

Share
stethoscope on money
By merznatalia via iStock for WMNF News.

Listen:

There’s an effort going on now to place Medicaid expansion on the 2026 ballot in Florida. This comes as Florida is one of only ten states that haven’t expanded Medicaid.

Jake Flaherty is the campaign manager for the organization Florida Decides Healthcare. He hosted a press conference Thursday announcing the initiative.

“With more than 1.4 million Floridians missing out on essential care this expansion would provide, the need to bring this policy across the finish line has never been greater.”

Eligibility would expand to adults making at or below 138% of the federal poverty level.

59-year-old Alison Holmes is a full-time caretaker for her disabled son JJ.

“My biggest fear is dying from something that would be survivable if I was just able to get typical annual checkups someone of my age gets.”

This isn’t the first effort to put Medicaid on the ballot, according to Holly Bullard of the Florida Policy Institute.

“In 2019, we collected enough signatures to trigger a Supreme Court review of our petition, but COVID shutdowns derailed us, the courts closing and new legislation out of Tallahassee made these initiatives much harder.”

In the Legislature, Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo made her stance clear.

“Medicaid expansion is not going to happen in the state of Florida”

The petition needs over one million signatures to make it on the ballot.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

The Righteous Rockers Experience
Player position: