I was looking for something else but happened upon an estimate that Social Security's Office of Chief Actuary made last year of the costs of extending SSI to all U.S. territories. The cost would be $23.4 billion over a ten year period with the vast majority of that for Puerto Rico. There's no projection presented of the number of claimants who would become eligible for benefits.
The issue of whether it is constitutional to deny SSI benefits to U.S. citizens who reside in U.S. territories will be heard by the Supreme Court this fall. It is also possible that President Biden will formally propose this as a change in the statutes.
Opposition to expanding the SSI programs to the territories in part is based on the cost. In my free spending mind the number isn't so large that citizens should be treated unequally.
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