State HHS seeks $55M maintenance funding, behavioral‑health and home‑and‑community increases

Eunice Medina, director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, presented the agency’s FY‑26 decision packages to the Senate Finance subcommittee on March 5, describing several maintenance and targeted requests tied to Medicaid enrollment changes and program operations.

Medina said Medicaid enrollment fell from roughly 1,300,000 during the federal public‑health emergency to about 1,100,000 after redeterminations, a drop of roughly 200,000 members. “A couple of the other slides…show that those in Medicaid that we serve are truly the most vulnerable: majority children, pregnant mothers, the disabled and the elderly,” Medina told the committee.

Medina described a maintenance‑of‑effort request of approximately $55,000,000 to “keep our lights on,” noting the agency has historically requested $70–90 million but is reducing the…