Jacob Ogles
The campaign to expand Medicaid in Florida raised almost $1.65 million in the second quarter.
Florida Decides Healthcare reported the fundraising total from April through June. That’s more than half of the now more than $2.78 million raised since the political committee was formed in 2018.
The bulk of fundraising came from a handful of sources that gave six-figure donations. The Tides Foundation, a nonprofit focused on social justice, gave $715,000. The Florida Policy Institute donated $400,000. The Florida Advancement Project put in $250,000, while Central Florida Jobs With Justice contributed $115,000 and Clearwater-based Allegany Franciscan Ministries gave $100,000.
Other major donors included Florida Voices for Health, Unidos Action PAC and Catalyst Miami, which each gave $15,000. The Florida Health Justice Project threw in $5,000, while Dr. Paul Palmberg of the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine donated $3,000.
Most of the new funding was immediately invested back into an effort to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The committee reported almost $1.63 million in expenditures as it continues to gather petitions to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2026 statewide ballot.
The proposed language would require the state to “provide Medicaid coverage to individuals over age 18 and under age 65 whose incomes are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level.” It would forbid the state from placing further restrictions on eligibility and would require the Agency for Health Care Administration to maximize participation among newly eligible individuals.
To date, the campaign has validated 62,650 signatures. The effort must submit 220,016 valid petitions to trigger a judicial review and 880,062 for the measure to qualify for the ballot.
The campaign in May also filed a legal challenge in federal court to new restrictions on the petition process that went into effect July 1.
