Fairness Project Applauds South Dakota Signature Certification to Place Medicaid Expansion on 2022 Ballot
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fairness Project Applauds South Dakota Signature Certification to Place Medicaid Expansion on 2022 Ballot
South Dakota Becomes Seventh State Where The Fairness Project has Advanced a Medicaid Expansion Ballot Measure
Pierre, South Dakota– Today, Fairness Project welcomed the next phase in the effort to expand Medicaid in South Dakota, after the Secretary of State Steve Barnett certified the South Dakotans Decide Healthcare petition, signed by 46,119 South Dakotans, to place Medicaid Expansion on the ballot in 2022. South Dakota is one of 12 states that have not expanded health care coverage to more low-income adults under a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. As Build Back Better legislation stalls in Congress, and the coverage gap remains, the people of South Dakota have taken matters into their own hands by pursuing this ballot measure–a tool that has proven to be the most effective way to expand Medicaid. The ballot measure would expand care to cover 42,500 South Dakotans.
Fairness Project instrumentally supported all of the successful ballot measures to expand Medicaid since 2017: Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Utah. These six Medicaid Expansion victories are included in the organization’s impressive record of winning 23 of 24 ballot measure campaigns that support working families.
Statement from Kelly Hall, Executive Director of Fairness Project:
“Today’s signature certification marks an important step forward for South Dakotans who have been waiting for their elected leaders to expand access to health care for nearly a decade. Medicaid expansion will officially be on the ballot in 2022, and voters will have the opportunity to decide their own future. Fairness Project is proud to have supported all six successful ballot measures to expand Medicaid over the past four years, extending much-needed health coverage to over 830,000 Americans to date. We have every reason to believe South Dakota will be next on that list of victories.”
Medicaid Expansion helps parents, farmers, near retirees, small business employees, and South Dakotans who work at jobs that don’t offer health care or who simply can’t afford it. They earn too much currently to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford care on their own.
Medicaid Expansion will help hardworking South Dakota families who are slipping through the cracks in our healthcare system and rural residents who already have to drive long distances for emergency care. Medicaid expansion will help keep rural hospitals open for when an emergency strikes and ensure that all South Dakota families have access to emergency care — regardless of where they live.
If you would like to interview Kelly Hall, Executive Director of Fairness Project, please email Alexis Magnan-Callaway at alexis@thefairnessproject.org.
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