Advocates for SQ802 rallying at the capitol, talking to lawmakers about medicaid expansion

Advocates for State Question 802 are rallying at the capitol talking to lawmakers about medicaid expansion.

Today's event is being called a "Medicaid Day of Action". This is being put on by volunteers with "Together Oklahoma," the advocacy group for the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

They delivered a petition to the governor's office calling for an election date to be set for State Question 802.

Now, the volunteers are visiting with lawmakers about the urgent need for full medicaid expansion. The group says, more than 313,000 Oklahomans signed the State Question 802 petition last year, and the measure now only needs the governor to set an election date, and they have been waiting.

"We hope that this is not a stall tactic we hope that the governors attempt is not to confuse voters but we hope that the governor will actually see and understand hat voters have already expressed their opinions expressed their views and their desires and we hope as the leader of this state that he would respect the opinions of the voters and take the necessary action," said Angela Monson, OKC Chapter Lead - "Together Oklahoma"

"I’m not gonna say he’s stalling he is certainly taking his time he’s had the opportunity to set the election date we want the governor to understand how imperative this is to the lives of thousands and thousands of Oklahomans the sooner he acts the sooner Oklahomans can have access to the care that they need," said Monson.

Back in January Governor Kevin Stitt announced his own plan health care plan, a SoonerCare 2.0 block grant health care plan, saying it would allow the state to reclaim its total federal medicaid funding without requiring new taxes.

The governor said this about State Question 802, and plans similar to it: quote “amending our constitution to force medicaid expansion are wrong and will be ineffective and will fail to fix our problems."