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Idaho Medicaid Expansion Proponents Submit Initiative Signatures

Reclaim Idaho

Idaho voters may also see an initiative on the ballot, one that would require the state to expand the Medicaid program to provide subsidized health care to thousands of low-income residents.

This week, sponsors of the initiative campaign turned in the last of their signatures. They need 56,000+ to get it on the ballot.

Garrett Strizich is a University of Washington medical student based in Moscow and co-founder of Reclaim Idaho, the group that developed the measure. He says organizers are confident they’ve submitted enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.

Strizich says organizers have been submitting petitions throughout the signature gathering process. He says nearly 40,000 signatures have already been validated. This week, the campaign submitted another 22,000. They need about 56,000 to make the ballot.

Strizich says the initiative is getting signatures from people with different political views.

“I was in Lewiston over the weekend and we had our team at a big festival, Art Under the Elms, there," he said. "We had Eric Peterson, who is the chair of the local Republican Central Committee in Nez Perce County, out there. He was collecting signatures to help us put Medicaid expansion on the ballot because he understands that this not about party, this is about getting people access to health care.”

Strizich says Reclaim Idaho expects to find out by the end of June whether their initiative will go on the ballot in November.

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