HURON — Dakotans for Health director Pam Cole spoke to the District 22 Democratic Forum Thursday at The Scoreboard. She discussed the purpose of the coalition, which is primarily focused on Medicaid expansion.
She opened by showing the difference in funds that the state would have available by expanding Medicaid. The state would have received $3 billion over the last 10 years to use for Medicaid expansion to many state residents that can not afford to purchase individual insurance from the marketplace and do not receive it through an employer.
Cole spoke with the attendees about potential health care workers who have attended schools in South Dakota but left the state due to struggling with their experiences seeing working poor with significant medical debt after attempting to cover needed medical procedures through individual pay.
She discussed the significant outreach that could happen for medical services on the reservations in the state with Medicaid expansion. New facilities on multiple reservations in the state are not able to staff those facilities presently with doctors and medical professionals.
Ensuring that all South Dakotans can access insurance will allow for a more productive society, per Cole, as they can pursue work without being hamstrung to insurance access, which often can leave many jobs open that don’t provide insurance struggling for applicants. She states, “A healthy population is a productive population.”
Dakotans for Health are working to collect needed signatures to get the proposal to expand Medicaid in the state on the 2022 ballot for voters in South Dakota to decide.
