Medicaid expansion backers kick off 90-day drive
The grassroots campaign Oklahoma Decides Healthcare kicked off its voter signature collection drive Wednesday in Oklahoma City.
Supporters of Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma have until Oct. 28 to collect 178,000 valid signatures to put State Question 802 on the ballot in 2020.
“Your jobs over the next 90 days are incredibly important,” campaign spokeswoman Amber England told signature drive volunteers.
Oklahoma is one of 14 states t hat has rejected Medicaid expansion offered through the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid is a program that helps pay for health care for low- income patients.
“Right now more than 200,000 Oklahomans cannot get the care they need because
we' ve waited too long to act ,” England said. “Eight rural hospitals have declared bankruptcy, and six have actually closed.”
Corey Lively, CEO of Great Plains Regional Medical Center in Elk City, was among the supporters who attended the kickoff. The hospital provides primary and secondary services to 65,000 people in six counties, Lively said. Without it, patients who need care from an orthopedic surgeon, cardiologist or urologist would have to drive 60 to 100 miles or more.
Bringing those federal tax dollars back to Oklahoma — estimated to be $1 billion each year — is the most important thing the state can do to ensure health care delivery to the most vulnerable patients, Lively said.
“This is critical to every rural community in the state of Oklahoma,” he said .“I can' t wait for our community to come together to support our hospital and the expansion of federal funding so that we can focus on longterm health care delivery in western Oklahoma.”
Jared Deck, of Norman, began gathering signatures in the Lincoln Terrace
neighborhood near the Capitol following a quick training session.
“I was born in a hospital that is no longer open,” Deck said. “I'm a patient at a community health center. I see the work on the front lines every time I walk in there, and I know the good that Medicaid expansion can for for our state.”
England said all the petition drive workers currently are volunteers, but Oklahoma Decides Healthcare will pay additional people if needed to gather the signatures.
The group has scheduled Medicaid Expansion Day of Action events Aug. 10 in cities across Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, two lawmakers who support using the additional Medicaid dollars to provide health care coverage for uninsured Oklahomans, were named this week to lead a legislative working group to study health care access. Sen. Greg McCortney, R-Ada, and Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan, said the working group likely will start meeting in mid-August.