More than 25% of people in southwest Minnesota get their health insurance through Medicaid, the Minnesota Department of Human Services said this week. Data recently released by DHS said programs like Medicaid had an impact of more than $67 million on health care in Lyon County alone in 2023.

In 2023, more than 307,000 Medicaid claims were reimbursed in Lyon County, with an average reimbursement of $221 per claim, according to data on a new DHS dashboard.

A monthly average of 7,468 people in Lyon County were enrolled in Medicaid in 2023, dashboard data said. An additional 368 people were enrolled in MinnesotaCare. Medicaid enrollment has been rising in Lyon County since 2019, when the average monthly enrollment was 5,970 people.

This week, DHS unveiled a website with data on Medicaid enrollment and funding in Minnesota, as concerns rise about proposed federal funding cuts.

“People need to understand the importance of Medicaid to the overall health of our state,” Minnesota Medicaid Director John Connolly said in a news release. “The federal contribution to Medicaid is billions of dollars, and federal cuts would be felt all over the state. We hope this data will help Minnesotans understand what’s at stake.”

Medicaid, which is also called Medical Assistance in Minnesota, is a state and federal program providing health insurance coverage for people including low-income families and children, older adults and people with disabilities. Minnesota also offers MinnesotaCare, a low-cost health insurance option for people whose income is too high to be eligible for Medicaid, and who don’t have access to affordable employer-sponsored health insurance.

The Department of Human Services’ Medicaid Matters website included interactive dashboards and maps with information on Medicaid enrollment and financial impacts around Minnesota.

Medicaid and MinnesotaCare provide health care coverage to one in four Minnesotans, the DHS said. Statewide, Medical Assistance enrollees include more than 592,000 children and more than 204,000 parents, DHS said.

While they don’t make up the majority of enrollees, people with disabilities and adults age 65 or older account for about 60% of Medicaid spending in Minnesota, DHS said.

Dashboards on the website broke Medicaid data down into regions similar to Minnesota’s Congressional districts, and into counties. According to 2023 data, health care providers in Lyon County received a total of about $67.8 million in Medicaid reimbursements. A total of 103 health care providers received Medicaid payments, the DHS dashboard said.

Providers received a total of about $26.8 million in Yellow Medicine County, $27.9 million in Redwood County, $9.4 million in Lincoln County, $20.1 million in Pipestone County, and $11.9 million in Murray County.

The possibility of federal cuts to Medicaid has raised concerns in Minnesota. Last month, a group of state legislators, including Rep. Joe Schomacker, R-Luverne, sent a letter urging Minnesota Republicans in Congress not to make deep cuts in Medicaid funding.

“Drastic reductions to Medicaid funding have the potential to impact the 1.4 million people we serve and place incredible pressure on our overall state budget,” the letter said. “There are no other sources to make up the lost federal share beyond severely impacting the seniors and those with disabilities who we serve.”

“Deep reductions beyond what we can absorb will also put a major strain on the state’s ability to support our county-based infrastructure,” the letter said. “In our county-based service model, via the property tax, counties already pay very significant shares of human services costs, including child protection, waiver management, chemical dependency, mental health, and state facility stays, and have little capacity to absorb any significant additional cost.

The only choices available are being forced to raise local property taxes drastically or close services.”