OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahomans voted no on State Question 814. That means TSET money cannot be used to partially pay for the state’s Medicaid expansion.

The expansion begins July 1, 2021. Until then, state legislators will need to work together to secure the multi-million dollar funding.

“It’ll be somewhere, we anticipate, in the range of $150-$170 million,” said Rep. Kyle Hilbert, (R) HD29.

State Question 814 would have funded about a third of that, around $50 million. But Rep. Hilbert said luckily, the legislature will not have to start from scratch.

“We can take a lot of those ideas we had last session and apply them to this to come up with ways to fund this moving forward,” said Rep. Hilbert.

One of those ideas could be increasing the Supplemental Hospital Offset Payment Program, or SHOPP, percentage.

“That could raise north of $100 million and get us a lot of the way there,” said Rep. Hilbert. “But obviously working to see what percentage is palatable and how much we can get there.”

“These ideas can come back,” said Rep. Cyndi Munson, (D) HD 85. “They don’t have to necessarily, you know, we don’t have to forget about them. We can still work on them in this next session.”

Rep. Munson said she is hopeful Medicaid expansion can happen without sacrificing other state programs.

“I believe that we can find ways to fund Medicaid without pitting our services against each other,” said Rep. Munson. “We continue to make that the number one option in our state and I don’t think it has to be.

State legislators will have until the last Friday of May 2021, when the next legislative session ends, to secure funding for Oklahoma’s Medicaid expansion.