Some state lawmakers are skeptical of DSS projections for Medicaid expansion in the 2025 fiscal year.
This comes amid a slow rollout after voter-approved Medicaid expansion became available last July.
Medicaid expansion has hit over 24,000 individuals enrolled, according to the state Department of Social Services.
Heather Petermann is the Medicaid Director for the department. She said with such a young program, projections are hard to accurately predict.
“Of course it is just one year, and it’s new for South Dakota. We really just have this one year as our base. Which again is I think why you have seen that we do have to do some estimating and then adjusting as we gain more experience with a particular population,” Petermann said.
DSS initially anticipated as many as 57,000 expansion enrollees. Back in April, that number was reduced to about 40,000 amid lower-than-expected sign-ups.
But some state lawmakers think that projection may still be too high.
Sen. Jim Bolin is a member of the appropriations committee, the legislative group that helps set the state budget. He said in an interim meeting Tuesday the DSS should reconsider its figures.
“I can’t imagine there’s gonna be more than 35,000 people applying for this program a year from now, when it’s all said and done. So, I really would encourage you to make some serious reevaluations of those numbers,” Bolin said.
Bolin said he worries with those projections will lead to unspent money in the budget.
"If we budget for 40,000, I believe we’re gonna be overbudgeting. And then this money becomes this reversion, which I’d like to see us reduce. I think we should have some reversion, but a lot less reversion in the resources,” Bolin said.
The number of applicants that qualify for Medicaid fluctuates as people are added and dropped throughout the year, so the budget is set as an average number of people.
Petermann said the DSS is coming out with more information in the future to back up the projection.
