The hard core of Republican states refusing Medicaid expansion under Obamacare has been slowly dwindling, and now South Dakota's Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard wants to be the next one. He has a plan and is working with the federal government to extend coverage to about 55,000 now-insured residents, and is now trying to convince his legislature to go along with it.
Daugaard announced a plan to expand Medicaid in the state Tuesday during an address to unveil the Republican governor's $4.8 billion budget plan.
"This is not a done deal," Daugaard told legislators. "I cannot tell you that everything will come together, but if it does I think we should seize the opportunity." […]
Daugaard's office has said the state's conversations about expansion depend largely on ongoing efforts by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to update a policy on funding 100 percent of funds for Medicaid-eligible American Indians through the Indian Health Service or tribes.
In this initial foray, it doesn't seem like he's convinced his legislature. "Rep. Don Haggar, R-Sioux Falls, said there isn't support in the predominately-GOP state House of Representatives for expansion." Said Haggar, "it's definitely not there […] I don't think we saw anything that would change anyone's mind today." Daugaard clearly has his work cut out for him in this one, but needs to keep pushing.
Clearly, there are Republican governors who as executives (and not as presidential wannabes) see the value in affordable expanding coverage, saving hospitals money, and ultimately helping out state budgets. In a state with as small a population as South Dakotas, 55,000 uninsured is a really high number. That's a big expense to the state in otherwise not-covered charity care. The more pragmatic governors, even the Republican ones, understand how many problems they could fix with expansion.