Lawmakers in South Dakota rejected a Republican-led effort to expand the state's Medicaid program via a state statute, now leaving it to voters to approve the move, according to the Argus Leader.
The state has scheduled a public vote on a Medicaid expansion initiative in November through a constitutional amendment, but the amendment's orchestrators said they would have put the vote on hold if legislators could pass an expansion directly via a state statute.
However, the bill to expand Medicaid without a public vote made it out of a committee Feb. 14, but died on the Senate floor.
This means that voters will decide if South Dakota will separate itself from the 12 states that have yet to expand their Medicaid programs. The expansion would cover about 40,000 additional South Dakotans and cost $300 million a year, with the state contributing $20 million annually, according to the Leader.