KC Star: Does narrow victory in Oklahoma set stage for Missouri Medicaid expansion vote?

By Matthew Kelly | July 3, 2020

A win is a win, but supporters of Missouri Medicaid expansion caution against reading too much into Tuesday’s election results in Oklahoma, where voters agreed to extend eligibility for the low-income health care program by a slender 1% margin.

Oklahoma became the 37th state to endorse Medicaid expansion and the fifth to do so through a referendum vote, circumventing the will of state Republican leaders and the Trump administration, which is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the law that made expansion possible, the Affordable Care Act.

When Missouri voters go to the polls on Aug. 4, they will be confronted with a proposed constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid for an estimated 300,000 low-income residents.

“It’s obviously very encouraging to see that Oklahoma accomplished the same type of thing as we’re trying to accomplish,” said Dave Dillon, spokesperson for The Missouri Hospital Association. “Yes, there are certainly some similarities between these states being conservative states, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we will treat it as Missouri will be a slam dunk.”

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