LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) For nearly a decade, opposition to former President Barack Obamas health care law has been a winning message for Nebraska Republicans.
Its helped them win every statewide office, control the Legislature and hold all the states congressional seats. So it was something of a surprise for Bob Tatum when he set out to ask his fellow Nebraskans if they would back a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid, one of the pillars of Obamas health overhaul.
There seems to be a lot more support than I anticipated, said Tatum, who lives in a remote town near the Colorado border.
It took him little more than a week to gather over 100 petition signatures in Perkins County, where roughly 70 percent of the 1,963 registered voters are Republicans. Tatum, 66, also is a Republican but differs from most of his partys elected officials. He supports the Medicaid expansion because his job as an ambulance driver brings him into frequent contact with working people who cant afford insurance but earn too much to qualify for regular Medicaid.
When I was circulating petitions, pretty much everyone signed it without objection, Tatum said. I didnt expect that to be the case in rural Nebraska.
Nebraska isnt the only conservative state where residents are bypassing a legislature that has refused to expand Medicaid.
Voters in two other Republican-dominated states, Idaho and Utah, also will decide in November whether to expand the health insurance program to more lower-income Americans. Another ballot initiative, in Montana, seeks to raise a tobacco tax to keep funding a Medicaid expansion that is set to expire.
It also has become a focal point in numerous governors races.
The election-year push in conservative-leaning states for one of the main aspects of Obamas health care law has surprised many Republican lawmakers after they spent years attacking it.
Most GOP lawmakers in Idaho staunchly opposed expansion efforts there and cast it as a welfare program that would deepen the states reliance on the federal government. Supporters responded by gathering more than 75,000 petition signatures, far exceeding the minimum threshold to qualify for the ballot.
Expansion advocates launched a petition drive in Utah after continued resistance from the Republican-dominated Legislature. Utah lawmakers did expand coverage to about 6,000 of the states neediest residents last year and approved another expansion measure with work requirements, but the federal government hasnt yet accepted that plan. Expansion advocates say it still leaves tens of thousands of people without insurance.
Other states have seen Medicaid expansion become a top issue in their governors race, with Democratic candidates forcing Republicans to defend their opposition.
In Tennessee, Democratic contender Karl Dean argues that the state already has lost out on $4 billion in federal money by refusing to participate.
That money is being spent in other states, Dean said in a recent debate. We need to get our Medicaid dollars back here.
Democrat Stacey Abrams is promoting expansion as a way to improve health care access in rural parts of Georgia where hospitals have closed, partly due to the expense of caring for the uninsured. Republican Brian Kemp said Abrams wants to double down on big government programs that cost too much and fail to deliver.
