在不到两周的时间里，俄克拉荷马州参加了两个与大流行相关的里程碑，第一个是在COVID-19危机期间主办唐纳德·特朗普总统的竞选活动。
第二个里程碑:周二，俄克拉荷马州成为自大流行爆发以来，根据平价医疗法案扩大医疗补助覆盖面的第一个州。
这一举措得到了微弱多数选民的支持。
这项被称为“州问题802”的投票措施以微弱的50.5%的多数票获得通过，现在有望通过州宪法修正案将覆盖面扩大到20多万低收入的俄克拉荷马州人。该措施要求某些低收入成年人有资格享受医疗保险，并旨在防止随后的立法使他们更难通过《平价医疗法》获得医疗保险。
2020年6月20日星期六，在俄克拉荷马州的塔尔萨，唐纳德·特朗普总统在博克中心的竞选集会上讲话
尽管该倡议在COVID-19在全国范围内传播之前就开始了，但鉴于在过去几个月中报告的冠状病毒病例不断增加，周二的决定给“更早的州”带来了新的意义。截至周三，俄克拉荷马州卫生部报告了该州超过14000例病例。
“我们在宪法中保护了州问题802，这样我们就可以让它远离政客和特殊利益集团的控制——所以语言非常清楚，他们必须扩大医疗补助，立法机构必须为它提供资金，”安珀·英格兰，在周三的电话会议上，“802俄克拉荷马州决定医疗保健”倡议的竞选经理告诉记者。
据英国称，该法案的通过将为该州带来超过10亿美元的额外联邦资金，并将有助于“拯救农村医院”
俄克拉荷马州州长凯文·斯蒂特在周三向美国广播公司发布的一份声明中称，州问题802的通过赋予州议员“一项艰巨的任务，那就是决定我们将在哪里找到大约2亿美元的资金来支持这项宪法授权。”
长期反对这一举措的斯蒂特表示，该州明年将面临10亿美元的赤字，并表示他未来的选择包括增税或削减“对教育、道路和桥梁或公共安全等核心服务的资助”。
2020年6月30日，俄克拉荷马州州长凯文·斯蒂特在俄克拉荷马城的新闻发布会上讲话时做手势。
英国对州长的评估进行了反驳，称尽管她“确信将会有一场关于修正案实施的热烈讨论”，但这种改变必须发生。
“我们得到了来自俄克拉荷马州大多数选民的授权，他们说，‘我们想要更多的医疗保健，而不是更少。’”她说。
根据凯撒家庭基金会的分析，在过去几年里，类似的通过投票来扩大医疗补助的努力已经在包括缅因州、爱达荷州、内布拉斯加州和犹他州在内的其他几个州展开。根据非营利基金会的数据，37个州和哥伦比亚特区已经采用了医疗补助扩展，而13个州还没有。
密苏里州目前是尚未扩大覆盖面的州之一，但随着州长迈克·帕森斯(Mike Parson)今年早些时候宣布，作为该州8月4日初选的一部分，密苏里人将对医疗补助扩大问题进行投票，改变的可能性就在眼前。
在11月大选前三个月，另一个红色州的转变可能会进一步加剧特朗普政府反对《平价医疗法案》的言论。尽管特朗普在6月20日塔尔萨的竞选集会上没有提到他的前任的签名政策，但周二在俄克拉荷马州的投票对现任政府试图废除政府支持的医疗保险计划提出了政治指责，当时美国正努力应对一场流行病。
2020年6月30日，在犹他州普罗沃，一名妇女在选举工作人员的帮助下，在布里格姆扬大学拉韦尔·爱德华兹体育场的停车场，将自己的选票放在一个盒子里，同时从自己的车里投票。
“这是非常糟糕的医疗保健，”特朗普在5月份谈到《平价医疗法案》时说。"我们想做的是终止它，并提供良好的医疗保健."
迄今为止，特朗普政府还没有提出医疗保健政策的替代方案。在2019年6月接受美国广播公司新闻采访时，特朗普承诺将推出一项新计划，他表示该计划“将比奥巴马医保便宜很多”当时，特朗普表示，他的政府将“在大约两个月内，或许更短时间内”提出一项提案，但从未宣布任何计划。
Coronavirus updates: Party guests exposed to COVID-19 not cooperating, officials say
In just under two weeks, the state of Oklahoma took part in two pandemic-related milestones, the first of which was hosting President Donald Trump's campaign relaunch in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
The second milestone: On Tuesday, Oklahoma become the first state to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act since the onset of the pandemic.
The move was approved by a narrow majority of voters.
The ballot measure, referred to as State Question 802, passed with a slim 50.5% majority vote, and is now expected to expand coverage to more than 200,000 lower-income Oklahomans through a state constitutional amendment. The measure mandates that certain low income adults are able to qualify for health care coverage, and aims to prevent subsequent legislation from making it more difficult for them to obtain health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the BOK Center, Saturday, June 20, 2020, in Tulsa, Okla.
Although the initiative began before COVID-19 spread across the country, Tuesday's decision brought a new level of significance to the Sooner State given its steady increase of reported coronavirus cases over the last several months. As of Wednesday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported more than 14,000 cases across the state.
"We protected State Question 802 in the constitution so that we could keep it out of the hands of politicians and special interests -- so the language is pretty clear they have to expand Medicaid and the legislature has to fund it," Amber England, campaign manager of the "Yes on 802 Oklahomans Decide Healthcare" initiative, told reporters during a teleconference Wednesday.
According to England, the passage of the measure would bring more than $1 billion in additional federal funds back to the state and would help "save rural hospitals."
In a statement issued to ABC News Wednesday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said the passage of State Question 802 tasked state legislators with "the difficult job of deciding where we will find an estimated $200 million in funding to support this constitutional mandate."
Stitt, who has long opposed the move, said the state is looking at a $1 billion deficit for the upcoming year and said his options going forward include raising taxes or cutting "funding to core services, such as education, roads and bridges or public safety."
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt gestures as he speaks during a news conference, June 30, 2020, in Oklahoma City.
England pushed back on the governor's assessment, saying that while she's "certain there will be a robust conversation" regarding the implementation of the amendment, the change will have to happen.
"We have a mandate from a majority of Oklahoma voters that says, 'We want more health care, not less,'" she said.
According to analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation, similar efforts to expand Medicaid through ballot initiatives have taken place in a handful of other states including Maine, Idaho, Nebraska and Utah over the last few years. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have adopted Medicaid expansion, while 13 states have not, according to the non-profit foundation.
Missouri is currently one of the states that has yet to expand coverage, but the potential for change could be on the horizon following Gov. Mike Parson's announcement earlier this year that Missourians would vote on the Medicaid expansion question as a part of the state's August 4 primary election.
The possibility of another red-state shift three months before the November election could further fuel the Trump administration's rhetoric against the Affordable Care Act. While Trump did not mention his predecessor's signature policy during his June 20 campaign rally in Tulsa, Tuesday's vote in Oklahoma served up a political rebuke of the current administration's attempts to repeal the government-backed health insurance program while the country grapples with a pandemic.
A women is helped by an election worker to put her ballot in a box while voting from her car in the parking lot of Lavell Edwards Stadium on the campus of Brigham Young University, June 30, 2020, in Provo, Utah.
"It's very bad health care," Trump said of the Affordable Care Act in May. "What we want to do is terminate it and give great health care."
To date, the Trump administration has not offered up an alternative to the to the health care policy. In a June 2019 interview with ABC News, Trump promised to put forth a new plan that he said would "be less expensive than Obamacare by a lot." At the time, Trump said his administration would have a proposal "in about two months, maybe less" but no plan was ever announced.
