SD med board to push lawmakers to expand Medicaid expansion but opposes "lay midwifery"
The South Dakota State Medical Association will continue to support efforts to expand the state’s Medicaid program, despite current threats to the federal Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that caused the debate in the first place.
SDSMA Board President Thomas Hermann Jr., a family practice physician from Sturgis told the Capital Journal Wednesday that the association still supports efforts to to expand Medicaid to cover people up to 100 percent of the poverty line. State government, though, seems to be taking a step back from the issue while Republicans in Washington D.C. debate whether to scrap the ACA and replace it with something else.
“The original ACA left some people uncovered,” Hermann said.
There were signs early in 2016 that South Dakota would expand its Medicaid program. Soon after the 2016 legislative session ended Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced that he’d reached a deal with the Indian Health Service to cover 100 percent of healthcare costs incurred by American Indians in the state. The savings were expected to be nearly $70 million.
Read more: http://www.capjournal.com/news/sd-med-board-to-push-lawmakers-to-expand-medicaid-expansion/article_425ad082-d967-11e6-87e2-bfbbb8c76eba.html