While the Trump administration is hard at work trying to destroy Medicaid, activists in three red states are fighting back. Following Maine's success ballot initiative to expand Medicaid, advocates in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah have launched campaigns which are showing early success.
Through a political action committee they founded called Reclaim Idaho, Luke Mayville and Garrett Strizich, both 32, are traveling the state collecting signatures to put the question of whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act before the voters.
“If I can, I want to make a difference where I grew up, because where I grew up has been overtaken by similar kinds of politics that seem to be taking over the country,” Mayville told HuffPost. “So I want to do something to push back against that.” […]
Advocates in Nebraska and Utah also are working to gather signatures to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot, and a retiree in Missouri has taken up the cause for a long-shot bid to do so as well. […]
“Maine really motivated myself to look into the ballot route,” Nebraska state Sen. Adam Morfield said.
He and other Nebraska legislators have tried advancing Medicaid expansion through legislative channels for years, and are trying again this year.
In addition to bring it back to the legislature, Morfield is working with advocacy organizations to get the issue on the ballot in November. As many as 90,000 people could gain coverage in Nebraska, 120,000 in Utah, and 78,000 in Idaho.
The Idaho effort has had strong early support with 10,000 signatures (they need over 56,000 total) gathered in January. The Idaho legislature, after being embarrassed by a 2012 citizens' repeal of two hated education "reform" laws it forced through, has made getting onto the ballot challenging. Medicaid for Idaho has to get enough registered voters' signatures to comprise 6 percent the total vote from the 2016 elections, and on top of that, has to get 6 percent of the vote from 18 of the state's 35 legislative districts. But with volunteer organizers across the state, the pieces are in place to meet that goal by the deadline in May.
Putting health care on the ballot in red states in this election year is a smart, progressive move, one that could help elect Democrats by drawing out more likely Democratic voters. It's a big part of the resistance in the face of the Trump administration's efforts to destroy the program.