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This is an opinion column.

It was early November 2008, a few days before the U.S. Presidential election. I lived in New York and was at lunch with a friend. There was much anticipation and optimism in my circles about the possible election of then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to Americas highest officeand concern.

For his safety.

I just hope, my friend said, her voice trailing off. The words needed not be said.

I sought, best I could, to ease her fears, to change the subject.

If hes elected, I said, I guarantee you two things will happen: One, hell have the best Secret Service in history, and two, hell make white folks crazy.

We laughed out loud.

Funny thingor not so much, reallythats exactly what happened.

Now, nowbreathe. Not all white folks, of course. It was hyperbole. So, chill.

Still, it happened. The election of the first Black President of the United States turned up the burners beneath the simmering stew of racism percolating in the darkest crock pots of our nation. And for the next eight years, a whole bunch of folks sat down at the table and indulged.

Until their bellies overflowed. Until they were enraged. So much so that .

congressional leaders of the opposing party flat-out said theyd lend zero to support his policiesno matter whom they might benefit.

those same lawmakers petulantly refused to consider an Obama Supreme Court nominee during the final days of his presidency even, defying the very Constitution they haughtily claim to defend.

a president was elected whose primary policy seemed to be to simply unObama Americaoh, and enrich himself and already-enriched friends.

his zealots stormed the U.S. Capitol, an act of insurrection none of us has seen, and hopefully will never see again.

our own states leadersAlabama Republicans, lets be clear, led by Gov. Kay Iveyfor years steadfastly and petulantly refused to expand Medicaid, refused to access millions of federal dollars to help provide more Alabamians with health insurance coverage. Coverage that might improve their lives. Coverage that might incentivize them to go to the doctor before theyre gripped by a life-threatening illness.

All because, well, degummed, it was Obamas idea. It was part of Obamacare, the term they tried to derisively deploy to stain the Affordable Care Act, the flawed but what-else-you-got effort to create affordable healthcare options for Americans most in need. (The former president ultimately flipped the deriders and laughingly embraced the term.)

Now, here we are, more than 12 years since 2008, and Im grateful. Grateful that, according to a new poll, most Alabamians have finally come around on expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income adults, mainly working adults whose employers do not provide insurance or who still cannot afford it.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents to the poll from Cover Alabama, a group of 90 organizations that support Medicaid expansion, either strongly or somewhat support it, too. Even a smidge more than half of Alabama Republicans (50.6 percent) support expansion after staunchly railing against it because, frankly, it was part of the ACA.

Some, including Gov. Ivey, guise their opposition as fiscal. Whenever the subject arises, she usually responds with some derivation of, Can we afford it?

We blew our chance at a rare federal freebie and it cost the state millions. When expansion was launched in 2014, the federal government paid 100 percent of the cost for the first three years. We had a winning lottery ticket lost it in the washer.

After the first three years, the feds still paid 90 percent of any increased costs to states. Now, theyre about to pay more. As my colleague Kyle Whitmire pointed out earlier this week, the Democrat-crafted stimulus percolating in the U.S. House includes a provision boosting federal coverage to 95 percent of costs.

The question Gov. Ivey and other holdouts should be asking: Can we not afford it?

Especially now, as Alabamians contend with the disastrous effects of COVID-19. Effects that shined a light on embarrassing, long-ignored racial and socioeconomic disparities. Effects likely to manifest themselves for years, maybe decades, among Alabamians who survived the virus.

Its estimated Medicaid expansion would touch more than 200,000 low-income residents. Individuals earning up to $17,609 and families with incomes of about $30,000 would qualify.

As Donald Trump failingly tried to dismantle Obamacare, six more states approved Medicaid expansion during his presidency, including ruby-red Oklahoma and Missouri.

Now, were one of only 12 states still stubbornly without Medicaid expansion. Aint we proud?

Give up the ghost, Gov. Iveythe Obama ghost. Or risk being haunted by something far more frightening: failing, once again, to help Alabamians struggling to help themselves. Especially so now.

Thats truly nuts.

A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj

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Johnson: Give up the Obama ghost Governor, expand Medicaid now - AL.com