South Dakota voters to weigh in on work requirements for Medicaid expansion in November

PIERRE — South Dakota voters will vote once again on Medicaid expansion. This time around, voters will decide if the state can implement work requirements on the expansion population.

SJR 501 passed the South Dakota House of Representatives 63-7 on Tuesday. Because it’s a resolution, it doesn’t require the governor’s signature. Instead, the resolution’s language will show up on the November ballot amid a potential number of ballot questions.

More: Work requirements for Medicaid expansion? SD Senate committee wants voters to decide

Proposed as a “clarification” to the voters, SJR 501 would ask if people who are part of the Medicaid expansion population should be subject to a work requirement, similar to what’s asked of people receiving federal social service programs such as food stamps.

Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, and Sen. Casey Crabtree, R-Madison, have led the charge on the resolution. They say the question is only the first step in a process that would require the federal government to approve Medicaid expansion work requirements, something that’s not happening at the moment.

“What we’re voting on today doesn’t say we’re going to do a work requirement, it doesn’t state we have to do it,” he said. “If it passes, that doesn’t mean we’ll come back here in January and implement it, it just means we have the option.”

Medicaid expansion covers the residents 18 to 64 who are working, able-bodied adults. Single adults who make less than $20,000 and families of four that make less than $41,000 are eligible for the federal health insurance program.

Nearly 20,000 South Dakotans as of January were part of the Medicaid enrollment population, according to the Department of Social Services.

The vote was along party lines, with Democrats spending time during debate opposing the resolution and saying it was offensive to the people of South Dakota who voted for expansion.

“Considering we have the lowest unemployment in the nation, who is not working? Who is on Medicaid and is not working?” Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, said. “I can answer that for you: It’s the poorest of the poor.”

Rep. Erin Healy, D-Sioux Falls, added the work requirements would add barriers to accessing health care.

More: South Dakota lawmakers are bringing back a Medicaid work requirement resolution in 2024

Ben Hanson, the North and South Dakota Government Relations Director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said that ACS was prepared to start educating voters about the ballot language and asking them to vote no.

“As advocates for South Dakota cancer patients, we find this legislation extremely disappointing,” he said. “Intents do not equal results and this will only result in more paperwork for employers and employees, loss of health coverage for South Dakotans who have already qualified for it and no uptick in employment.”

Venhuizen said the ultimate motive of the resolution was a philosophical one.

“This is really a philosophical question about the purpose of social programs,” he said. “Are our social programs a safety net for people who need a hand up or are they a way of life? …We want to give people a hand up to a better life.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Medicaid expansion work requirement heading to November ballot