South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard has proposed expanding Medicaid coverage to about fifty thousand uninsured people, and doing it in partnership with the Indian Health Service. The plan would use dollars from IHS to help pay for coverage of native Americans, and in effect subsidize the state portion of Medicaid costs.
Senator Bill Van Gerpen of Tyndall says the plan makes sense….
Van Gerpen says there is some concern about expanding the federal deficit….
Van Gerpen, a member of the Appropriations Committee, says the expansion could help a lot of people and health care facilities….
The federal government has not yet signed off on all the details of the state plan.
