CREC adopts revised Medicaid and human-services caseload and cost estimates; large gross increases noted for DHHS

The CREC adopted revised Medicaid and human-services caseload and cost estimates on May 20 after staff from the State Budget Office and fiscal agencies presented updated projections.

"In the current year for DHHS as a whole, we recommend an increase of $896,000,000 gross, of which $234,200,000 general fund," State Budget Office presenter Matt Ellsworth reported. He said the majority of that growth is on the department's health-services side: "$875,700,000 gross, $212,500,000 general fund," Ellsworth said, with a smaller human-services-side increase also noted.

For fiscal 2026 Ellsworth summarized proposed increases of roughly $509,000,000 gross on the health side and a smaller $4,000,000 gross on human services, netting a total gross increase of about $513.3 million and a slight reduction in general-fund need compared with the executive recommendation, Ellsworth said.

CREC principals moved, seconded and approved the DHHS caseload and cost estimates by voice vote. Staff noted those figures will feed into the executive and legislative budget deliberations and reflected updates from recent expenditure trends and staff consensus meetings.