Florida Decides Healthcare suspended their efforts in September due to legal roadblocks.

• A Medicaid expansion campaign is relaunching its effort to get a proposed measure on the 2028 Florida ballot.
• The group, Florida Decides Healthcare, is legally challenging a new state law that restricts the constitutional amendment process.
• The new law, HB 1205, has increased signature verification costs and tightened deadlines for petition groups.

A Medicaid expansion campaign is relaunching a push to get its proposed measure on the 2028 ballot, despite its continuing legal battle against a Florida law restricting the process to amend the state’s constitution.

The group, Florida Decides Healthcare, in September delayed its campaign for the 2026 ballot, saying HB 1205’s roadblocks made it “nearly impossible” to succeed in a shorter timeline. But starting Feb. 1, they’ll launch a digital campaign and send out mail with prepaid return envelopes for voters looking to sign a petition.

They’re hopeful that 2028 will be successful against the hurdles from Florida’s new laws, and especially because they believe they’ll be successful at trial, said Mitch Emerson, the executive director of Florida Decides Healthcare. The trial for their challenge to Florida’s law is scheduled to start Feb. 9.

“The state crossed constitutional lines, and what Florida did here violates the First Amendment rights of Floridians to participate in the constitutional amendment process,” Emerson said. “Every win (against) HB 1205 is a step in the right direction for democracy.”

Expired health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act have pushed thousands of Floridians off coverage plans, Emerson said, and he said access to Medicaid is paramount in Florida.

More: Legal battles could delay Florida recreational marijuana amendment

HB 1205: Tougher road to the ballot

Florida’s new signature gathering law raised penalties and tightened deadlines for petition groups, along with a provision banning nonresidents and noncitizens from gathering signatures. Another provision limits each volunteer to only collect 25 petitions.

The group may also struggle financially, since supervisors of elections across the state increased their signature verification costs because of the new procedures outlined in the law. In September, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said his office’s fee used to be 85 cents per verified petition, but it increased in $4.16.

More: New petition law threatens 2026 ballot initiatives in Florida

Additionally, Florida officials have fought to uphold the invalidation of petition signatures. A circuit judge in November ruled state officials weren’t wrong to order elections supervisors to dump 200,000 signatures supporting a recreational pot campaign.

Deadlines also are tighter, since all petitions must be turned in to local elections offices within 10 days, and groups can be fined for late petition returns and missing voter information.

Petition groups’ lawsuit against Florida

The Medicaid expansion group filed the lawsuit in May against Florida’s secretary of state, attorney general, the 67 supervisors of elections and the state attorneys, the elected chief prosecutors for each of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits.

Additional groups joined to request parts of the law be blocked, including Smart and Safe Florida, an adult-use recreational pot campaign, and Florida Right to Clean Water.

In July, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who sits in Tallahassee, upheld most of the petition law, but he issued an order against the provision on nonresident and noncitizen circulators, saying it imposed a “severe burden on political expression.”