South Dakotans voted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, providing tens of thousands of impoverished people with access to health care and dismissing state GOP attempts to sink the effort.
With 56% of the vote, the successful ballot initiative should practically ensure that more than 40,000 people gain access to the program when it takes effect in July. Many would not have had access to health care otherwise.
For residents like Sarah Houska, the decision is life-changing. In the summer of 2021, she had to leave a job that provided health insurance to care for her 5-year-old son, who needed intensive medical care.
Although she has since taken a part-time job at a dental office, Houska, 29, said she lives with the worry that if she develops any health problems, her family could lose stability.
“It felt so great, just so much relief, so much pride in our state for passing this amendment,” Houska said Wednesday. “And it wasn’t close. I wasn’t biting my nails waiting for the vote to come in at all.”
The ballot measure amended the state constitution to enshrine expansion for Medicaid health care coverage to all adults who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level.
Previously, an adult with two kids would have had to make less than $10,590 a year to qualify for the public health care program, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. Now a family of three earning up to $31,780 would be eligible.
Eliot Fishman, the…
