TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The debate over Medicaid expansion is long past over in Tallahassee, with Republican leaders turning down federal money to cover hundreds of thousands of uninsured Floridians.

But now, health care activists are working to take the issue to the voters with a Medicaid expansion ballot measure.

State economists say about 260,000 of uninsured Floridians would sign up for health insurance under Medicaid expansion if voters were to approve it in 2020.

A group called “Florida Decides Healthcare” has collected enough petition signatures to trigger a fiscal review of its proposed Medicaid expansion ballot amendment.

Between 2013 and 2015, the legislature flirted with the idea of expanding Medicaid. The federal government was and is still offering to pay 90 percent of the cost.

Back then, estimates were as many as 700,000 uninsured Floridians would sign up for coverage. But a lot’s happened since then, and that’s why the new projection is a lot lower.

“The whole effort to bring up the tax consequences and penalties associated with not participating in insurance, the piece is off the table. We’re also in a better economic time now than we were initially, so you have a lot more people that are insured,” said Amy Baker, Chief State Economist.

Economists are projecting expansion could actually save the state money, because Floridians who are already enrolled in Medicaid could have more of their coverage paid for by the expansion money.

For the Medicaid expansion amendment to make it to the ballot, organizers have to collect more than 760,000 signatures. Right now, they're only about 10 percent of the way there.