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A proposal to expand Medicaid eligibility in South Dakota will appear on the November ballot, the secretary of state's office announced Monday. Constitutional Amendment D was validated after an estimated 38,244 people signed petitions to put in on the ballot, more than 4,000 above the number necessary. Medicaid is a federal-state health insurance program for low-income people. South Dakota is one of 12 states that has not accepted federal incentives to expand Medicaid eligibility, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (1/3)

KHN: South Dakota Voters To Decide Medicaid Expansion 

For nearly a decade, the Republican legislature has opted against expansion, citing concerns about the federal debt and worries that Congress would eventually cut federal funding for the program. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, strongly opposes Medicaid expansion, even though the federal government picks up most of the cost. To counter the Medicaid ballot initiative, GOP leaders are promoting a separate measure on the June primary ballot that, if passed, would require 60% voter approval for any new constitutional measures that increase taxes or cost the state $10 million or more. It would apply to the Medicaid initiative in November. (Galewitz, 1/6)

A lot of South Dakotans over the age of 50 support Medicaid expansion. That’s what AARP South Dakota State Director Erik Gaikowski found from a survey his organization conducted with registered South Dakota voters over the age of 50. He said of the 1,000 people they polled, nearly 800 supported passing Medicaid expansion. (Mayer, 1/4)

In June 2018, when Arkansas became the first state in the nation to implement work requirements for certain Medicaid beneficiaries, Governor Hutchinson was triumphant. “We’ve wanted to establish a work requirement … for a long time,” he said at the time. The Obama administration had refused to authorize work requirements, but the Trump administration gave the green light. “With this development, Arkansas has become a national leader in rethinking the delivery of public assistance,” the governor boasted. Three and a half years later, the work requirements are gone. The state did not even ask to continue the policy after the Biden administration signaled early in 2021 that it would no longer allow Medicaid work requirements. (Ramsey, 1/3)

Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist promised Wednesday if elected governor he will veto any proposed state budget that does not include an expansion of Medicaid. Crist, a former Republican governor seeking a return to Tallahassee as a Democrat, said the failure to expand Medicaid shows how incumbent GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature “are missing in action on what’s important to most Floridians.” (Call, 1/5)

Forsyth County legislators Sen. Joyce Krawiec and Rep. Donny Lambeth were named Wednesday as chairs of a joint legislative committee formed to study whether and how North Carolina could expand its Medicaid program. The formation of the Committee on Access to Healthcare and Medicaid Expansion represents an agreement between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. (Craver, 1/5)

The people who run Berkshire County’s nursing homes agree with their critics that workers need better wages — and the buildings need more staff — to provide a higher quality of care. They disagree about how to do this, however, as well as why a longstanding staffing crisis persists. Nursing home owners say they are dependent on state Medicaid reimbursements that don’t cover the cost of care. This prevents them from staffing up and hiking wages, they say. (Bellow, 1/4)

Almost any doctor treating low-income communities has come across a diabetic patient who bookends each month with an emergency room visit. At the beginning of the month, it’s a high blood sugar episode, and, at the end of the month, it’s a low blood sugar episode. “There's nothing biological about that,” explains Sanjay Basu, 41, a primary care doctor and cofounder of the healthtech startup Waymark. “It's because oftentimes people on Medicaid are food insecure.” (Jennings, 1/4)