Reznet

AIJI student Louis Montclair interviews Gov. Mike Rounds. Reznet photo by Jennifer McMahan

Risk Pool

By Travis Coleman

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.-An alarming number of high-risk patients in South Dakota are without insurance coverage.

Gov. Mike Rounds discussed a plan for covering high-risk insurance patients June 9 in Pierre. Legislators will hear the details in a special session at the end of June.

"This is one of the most important issues facing South Dakota today," Mark Johnston, Rounds' press secretary, said.

The 18-month to two-year plan would provide medical coverage for uninsured patients at about $340 a month per person, according to the Argus Leader.

In South Dakota, 1,055 people are classified as uninsurable. Insurance companies are reluctant to cover these people due to their risky medical conditions.

When insurance companies began to leave the state due to the pressure of insuring high-risk patients, the burden shifted to the remaining companies in the state. Rounds' plan is a response to the crisis that resulted.

"We're trying to find a way to eliminate the guarantee issue and put together a pool," Rounds said June 6 at a press conference with the American Indian Journalism Institute. Rounds was referring to the guarantee that insurance companies had to have a percentage of these high-risk patients covered.

Rounds said he will ask doctors, hospitals and insurance writers to help lower the overall cost of this plan. He also will call on hospitals and doctors to take a less than normal rate for covered individuals and insurance writers to take a lower commission, according to the Argus Leader.

'Multiple Thousands'

Rounds hopes this will raise $800,000, along with $500,000 contributed by the state from the general fund.

Rounds said he hopes to prevent other insurance companies from leaving the state. If more companies leave, he said, the number of uninsured people could grow to 40,000.

"If you don't fix the problem, instead of 1,000, you'd have multiple thousands," Rounds said.

Editors and reporters in the Sioux Falls area commented on Rounds and his performance up to this point.

"He's accessible; he's open," said Chuck Baldwin, editorial page editor for the Argus Leader. "We're starting to see some tangible results from the governor."

Other editors have echoed the positive sentiments.

"Mike Rounds has a very difficult task," said Patrick Lalley, state editor of the Argus Leader. "He's made some good strides."

Rounds' difficult task includes making his own image different than his predecessor, Bill Janklow, now South Dakota's congressman in Washington. Baldwin said that Rounds' style is different from Janklow's.

"Bill Janklow would yell at you and call you an idiot," Baldwin said. "Bill Janklow wasn't inaccessible."

 

Travis Coleman, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, attends Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. He is a student at the Freedom Forum's 2003 American Indian Journalism Institute.