Oklahoma Medicaid expansion is on the ballot
Oklahoma activists are going the same route as Utah, Idaho and Nebraska activists successfully used in the 2018 election cycle: They are trying to get enough signatures to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot.
"I think the Legislature is definitely the proper place for something like this to be dealt with. I think the petition is probably out of frustration that the Legislature hasn't done something yet." — Sen. @GMcCortney (R-Ada) on #SQ802's filing. https://t.co/lF9jS3U6sH #okleg
— NonDoc (@nondocmedia) April 19, 2019
If you live in Oklahoma, this question needs slightly more than 177,000 valid signatures to appear on the 2020 ballot.
Odds are that even if it passes, there will be follow-on shenanigans as we have seen in Utah, Nebraska and Idaho to either delay or water down the expansions. In my opinion, a bad expansion is better than a perfect non-expansion. I assess the counterfactual as no expansion instead of a full expansion so people with different reasonable counterfactuals will vehemently disagree with me.
The ballot box is not the only way that Medicaid expansion of some sort may come to Oklahoma. There is a bananpants county level expansion proposal floating out there.
Quote of the Day from Tulsa World editorial on a bill by House Speaker Charles McCall that would make Oklahoma counties individually apply for Medicaid expansion and pay for the state share with local sales or property taxes
[Source: https://t.co/WFn9rBzcOm]
— OK Policy (@OKPolicy) April 12, 2019
Here the scheme would be two or more bordering counties could expand Medicaid. The state share of the expansion (10% of costs) would be funded by local taxes. This would be wonderful for health and public finance economists and a complete cluster for everyone else.
This is OK. There is no other counterfactual.
@OzarkHillbilly: There is a legitimate other counterfactual of full expansion as voted on and approved by the voters
Keep voting for republicans, you’ll get what you asked for. Good and hard.
yes yes yes!!
let’s get it on all the ballots of states that don’t have it.
Has anyone explained to these morons how insurance works?
I am also interested in whether these fuckwits think their state-provided health insurance will be paid for their lifetime, because they’re sure acting like it.
Personally, I love the job security that county-level initiatives like this provide to empirical microeconomists like myself.
If they couldn’t only throw in a taxpayer financed MLS stadium while they are at it, that would be great!
@Victor Matheson: agreed … Micro variation across multiple years and boundaries = job security
[…] Anderson: Oklahoma Medicaid Expansion Is on the Ballot: “Oklahoma activists are going the same route as Utah, Idaho and Nebraska activists […]