S. D. Task Force Recommends Insurance Risk Pool

A risk pool for uninsurable South Dakotans and Medicaid-based subsidies for health insurance premiums are among recommendations of a state task force.

The group also recommends research be done into the types of assistance that can be given to employers to encourage them to buy health insurance for workers.

The task force finished its work with 16 major recommendations but failed to meet the part of state law requiring it to make cost estimates and identify funding sources for its recommendations.

Those who served on the panel, which was established by this year’s Legislature, said they didn’t have enough time to do both a comprehensive study and come up with the costs.

“As the process unfolded, it became clear that a comprehensive approach … would be most appropriate given the short time frame,” the task force’s report said.

The recommendations “are conditioned upon a later determination of cost estimates and funding sources by those entities proposing specific implementation strategies. The practicality of any proposal will depend in large part upon its actual cost and benefit,” the report said.

In August, a task force subcommittee said it could cost $18 million to enroll about 5,000 uninsurable South Dakotans in a risk pool based on the same premiums as one created in 2003.

That risk pool offered coverage to people who have lost health insurance through no fault of their own. The premium cap was 150 percent of the average market premium.

The 2003 risk pool did not help uninsured South Dakotans with a pre-existing condition or an illness that kept them from getting private coverage unless they lost coverage only recently.

The task force also recommended that eligibility for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program be increased from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 250 percent.