Leading Off
SD Ballot, ND Ballot
South Dakota Republicans are promoting a ballot measure that would endanger Medicaid expansion in the state, as well as a second proposal that would make it difficult for voters to reverse any changes to the program.
Amendment I, which the state’s GOP-dominated legislature placed on the ballot last year, would roll back expanded Medicaid eligibility if federal support for expansion—which voters approved in 2022—ever falls below 90% of its cost.
Republicans have said that passage of Amendment I wouldn’t automatically cost anyone their Medicaid benefits, a claim that opponents vociferously dispute.
State Sen. Casey Crabtree told his colleagues last year, “Really, what we need to do is make sure we’ve got the flexibility to negotiate terms, as well. If the voters go back and clarify they want us to have that flexibility, then, we’ll be able to adjust accordingly.”
The plan’s proponents, therefore, are unhappy with the measure’s official ballot summary, which tells voters that an affirmative vote “ends the expanded Medicaid coverage if the federal funding for expansion drops below 90%.” Should that threshold ever get breached, “Medicaid coverage will once again only apply to low-income children, pregnant women, disabled individuals, and the elderly.”
Another Republican, state Rep. Will Mortenson, argued to South Dakota Searchlight last month that this summary, also known as the ballot title, is “100% inaccurate,” saying the proposal “would absolutely not immediately remove Medicaid coverage for the expansion population.”
But GOP lawmakers aren’t just quarreling with Democrats. Their beef is with Attorney General Marty Jackley, a Republican who drafted the summary that his fellow party members are now complaining about.