The Oklahoma Supreme Court has upheld a ballot initiative championed by a group seeking a public vote on Medicaid expansion for tens of thousands of low-income Oklahomans.

A written opinion from the court issued Tuesday afternoon states "the proposed Medicaid expansion is not misleading and is sufficient", also adding "the language of the gist is clear".

Amber England, a spokesperson for Oklahomans Decide Healthcare, they expect to begin collecting signatures later this summer. Hours before the written opinion was issued, England said the opposition's claims of deceit and fraud were an "absolute overreach".

“All our gist says today is that we are complying with the federal statute that allows for expansion of Medicaid. Largely what you’re seeing today is political antics from the opposition who do not want this to in front of Oklahoma voter because they know, that Oklahoma voters want to decide for themselves if we should decide to expand Medicaid and bring those federal dollars home from Washington D.C.,” she said. “We’re not recapturing those dollars now. 36 other states are. That’s money that could help save our rural hospitals, to invest in our local communities to create jobs and to help almost 200,000 Oklahomans get healthcare that they’re being denied today.”

England said they will begin collecting signatures later this summer. Once the process officially starts, they will have 90 days to collect all necessary signatures.

About OrionNet Systems

OrionNet is an Oklahoma small business founded in 2001. OrionNet has designed, developed and supported applications created both for the client-server and web environments, as well as developing, marketing and supporting a commercial application for the counseling centers industry.

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