Manatt’s Patricia Boozang, a senior managing director with Manatt Health, spoke with Bloomberg Law on new ballot initiatives in five states to expand Medicaid.
State governments in South Dakota, Mississippi, Wyoming, Florida and Missouri have said they will allow residents to vote on locally-led ballot questions regarding Medicaid expansion in 2020, according to Bloomberg Law.
Boozang said this move could encourage action from state-level advocates of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“It kind of emboldens the ACA expansion proponents in states to pursue ballot initiatives,” she said.
Voters in Utah and a number of other states approved full Medicaid expansion in 2017 and 2018, but conservative lawmakers in several of these states reworked the expansion plans and pushed for partial expansion, according to Bloomberg Law.
However, Boozang said these new initiatives from states to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot in 2020 could change how it is implemented.
“It kind of limits the ability of legislatures to come in after the fact and sort of change the terms of what the people passed,” she said.