Central Florida leaders join push for Medicaid expansion on 2026 ballot

Central Florida politicians and community organizers joined with the “Florida Decides Healthcare” Campaign in Orlando on Thursday to push for putting Medicaid expansion on the 2026 ballot.

The campaign, officially launched in February, is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would ask Floridians to decide whether to expand Medicaid coverage to adults ages 18 to 64 whose incomes are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level: $20,782 in 2024.

Leaders from Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Poder Latinx, Sunrise Movement Orlando, CWA Local 3108 and Hablamos Español Florida spoke at Thursday’s conference at the State Regional Service Center on West Robinson Street.

“It is morally, ethically and spiritually wrong that we have neighbors amongst us who do not have access to health care,” said Bishop Maldonado of Hablamos Español Florida.

Florida is one of 10 states that has chosen not to accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Republican legislators made it clear during the 2024 legislative session that expansion was a non-starter, arguing it was a waste of money and wasn’t effective.

“Expanding Medicaid does nothing,” Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo told reporters in March.

The Legislature instead focused on passing the landmark Live Healthy initiative, a package of bills aimed at addressing the state’s health care worker shortage.

“This session’s Live Healthy bill brought many, much needed, long-overdue changes for the healthcare workforce in Florida, but it left half a million Floridians behind,” said Acadia Jacob, advocacy director of Florida Voices for Health, at Thursday’s press conference.

An estimated 415,000 Floridians were stuck in a health insurance coverage gap before the pandemic because they made too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to qualify for subsidized care, although the state has expanded eligibility for certain populations like pregnant and postpartum women.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 11.2% of Floridians ages 0 to 64 were uninsured in 2022, more than 2.5 million. The number has likely grown since then.

Florida removed 1.4 million people from its Medicaid rolls over the last year following the end of a pandemic-era policy that banned states from removing ineligible participants from the health insurance program for low-income and disabled people.

“Already, Floridians face so many barriers to accessing quality, affordable health care in our state. There’s no … one solution to fix everything. That said, it’s still within our power to impact serious positive change and improve this health care system,” Jacob said.

Florida joins several other Republican-led states where advocates have grown frustrated enough to take Medicaid expansion to the voters.

Since 2017, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and South Dakota have passed Medicaid expansion through ballot initiatives.

“I [was] so ecstatic when I heard the news that we were finally going to do this because it has been under discussion for years in Florida and we have an incredible team leading the charge,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, on Thursday.

The “Florida Decides Healthcare” campaign follows the success of initiatives to put abortion and marijuana legalization on the 2024 ballot, as well as a successful effort to get Orange County to buy up residents’ medical debt. 

Ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com

©2024 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.