South Dakota Task Force Issues Recommendations To Extend Health Insurance To More State Residents

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 05 Oct 2007 - 5:00 PDT

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A new South Dakota health insurance risk pool would extend coverage to more than 5,000 uninsured residents, according to a final report released on Monday by the Zaniya Task Force, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. The task force, established under a recently enacted state law, sought to develop recommendations to ensure that all residents have access to affordable health care.

According to the report, which included 16 major recommendations to the state Legislature, the current state risk pool has not helped those with pre-existing medical conditions who have not recently lost coverage. The pool was established in 2003 to provide affordable health insurance to residents who lost coverage through no fault of their own. The state risk pool caps health insurance premiums at 150% of the average market premium. The new state risk pool recommended in the report would extend health insurance to about 5,200 uninsured residents. The report recommended the establishment of a work group to develop eligibility criteria for the new state risk pool, design the program and identify a funding source.

The report also recommended that state lawmakers:

• Establish a work group to encourage state residents who can afford health insurance to obtain coverage;
  
  
• Increase efforts to enroll all eligible state residents in Medicaid and SCHIP;
  
  
• Expand SCHIP income eligibility from 200% to 250% of the federal poverty level; and
  
  
• Expand eligibility for health insurance premium subsidies funded by Medicaid to allow more low-income state adults to purchase coverage.

The report did not provide cost estimates or identify funding sources for its recommendations. According to the Argus Leader, the task force felt that it did not have sufficient time to produce both comprehensive recommendations and cost projection. The report said that the recommendations "are conditioned upon a later determination of cost estimates and funding sources by those entities proposing specific implementation strategies."

State Sen. Tom Dempster (R), who led efforts to establish the task force, said, "We have identified the problems, and we have a roadmap for solutions. The cost estimates will be the easy part" (Woster, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 10/2).

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