But Stitt plans to work on it over the summer, in time to present a plan this fall for Oklahoma to expand health coverage. Lawmakers then could take up expansion reforms in next year’s legislative session.

In the first legislative session of his first term, he could only accomplish so much and tackling Medicaid expansion or other coverage for uninsured Oklahomans didn’t make the shortlist.

But some Republicans lawmakers fear waiting until next year to address the issue could be too late to derail a possible state question on Medicaid expansion.

“I very much worry that not taking care of this this session, when we had the opportunity, will prove to be a big mistake,” Sen. Greg McCortney said.

Supporters of Medicaid expansion filed an initiative petition with the state last month to bring the issue to a statewide vote in 2020. The measure calls for so-called straight Medicaid expansion, which would not include conditions favored by many conservative lawmakers like work requirements or requiring Medicaid participants to pay a small portion of their premiums.

McCortney, R-Ada, introduced legislation this session that would have used federal dollars to expand the Insure Oklahoma program — a private-insurance subsidy program administered by the state — to cover the population Medicaid expansion would have covered.