Medicaid expansion supporters move forward with ballot plan

The Ohio Ballot Board on Thursday paved the way for supporters of a potential Medicaid expansion ballot initiative to move forward with plans to either force the Ohio General Assembly to vote on the matter or have voters take up the issue next fall (Source: “Medicaid-expansion effort cleared to collect signatures,” Columbus Dispatch, April 20, 2013).

With unanimous approval from the five-member Ohio Ballot Board, Healthy Ohioans Work — a coalition of businesses, health-care providers, unions, advocates for the poor and others — can now begin collected the 115,574 signatures needed to place the issue before the General Assembly.

If lawmakers don’t approve the initiated statute, or take no action after four months, supporters must circulate petitions with the same minimum requirement — 3 percent of voters in the 2010 gubernatorial election — to place the proposal before voters on the November 2014 ballot.