Last updated on 2021.04.07
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because he realized he'd get run over if he didn't expand Medicaid.
Here are the top ten reasons Governor Dennis Daugaard is changing his public position on expanding Medicaid:
- Governor Daugaard has an election to win, and with candidates (some of them viable) chomping at the bit on both sides of the political spectrum to replace him, he needs a good practical issue to play to the vast quiet middle.
- Susan Wismer told him to last year.
- Joe Lowe told him to this year.
- Lora Hubbel and Annette Bosworth have told him not to, and Governor Daugaard is tired of sounding crazy.
- Governor Daugaard smells trouble coming on EB-5, and he needs to burnish his credentials as a decent human being before indictments and/or plea deals start knocking off political allies.
- Governor Daugaard's inside information on EB-5 tells him the scandal is worse than any of us know, and he wants to make sure his Republican friends and family can all get health coverage when they lose their jobs next year.
- The national GOP has convinced Governor Daugaard that the Chamber of Commerce wing of the party needs to beat down the Tea Party radicals once and for all. Accepting the Medicaid expansion ends the last practical resistance to the Affordable Care Act, and when South Dakotans see that the Medicaid expansion doesn't cause Armageddon any more than the now quietly effective health insurance exchanges, the Tea Party will lose its greatest weapon and make it easier for sane and sober Republicans to retake their party.
- The cognitive dissonance of saying we couldn't rely on the federal government to follow through on its financial commitments to Medicaid while advocating a state budget that gets 37% of its funding from Uncle Sam became unbearable.
- Money is money, and South Dakota can't say no to any infusion of outside cash to boost its economy.
- Deep down, Dennis Daugaard is a decent man, and he recognizes that helping sick and injured South Dakotans get healthy and get back to work without being bankrupted by medical expenses is the right thing to do.
Governor Daugaard says that if the feds respond quickly enough, he may expand Medicaid eligibility up to the poverty level in this year's budget.
Mark Trahant has been encouraging ndns to sign up for ObamaCare because Congress isn't going to fund IHS at previous levels. The board of directors for Rapid City Regional System of Medical Monopoly is a GOP donor factory losing credibility with the Native community in that town. Not hard to connect the dots.
What a tool! Ideology over practicality until you rub his nose in facts! Too damn many games and not enuf doing the people's business!
via Jerry Oster @570WNAXNEWS 5m
Dist 18 Sen Hunhoff: state employee deductibles and copays going up, need about 6 mill to cover. Healthier workers could lead to lower costs.
The following is a non-economist using an MIT Living Wage Calculator to figure Daugarrd's Math. Maybe something was missed, but it doesn't seem to add up. Note how MIT's Typical Hourly Wage does not go as low as Minimum.
http://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/46103
His proposed 101% would be $12,000 of income, or $1,000 per month. Minimum Wage nets $1,080 per month.
Housing: $500 per month
Transportation: $300
Food: $240
Other: $65
Dental: $0
Entertainment: $0
Christmas Presents: $0
Charitable Donations: $0
Pet: $0
Cake: $0
Life: zero
That leaves a Negative, $25 per month for a single, 40 hour per week minimum wage earner to buy Insurance.
"The one-size fits all approach that's offered by the Affordable Care Act really doesn't match up with the beliefs of most South Dakotans that we want to help those who can't help themselves, and those who can help themselves should," Daugaard said Friday.
Marshall Dennis, we love you! Don't go all wobbly!
Mayhaps Shakespeare was correct when he said elections make the heart grow fonder. OMG another salacious comment. Will it never end?
I like items 6 thru 7 of the top five reasons.
Why oh why does DD only want to partially expand our state's medicaid program?? He says that he doesn't trust the Fed. government to pay as much as they promise. To me that's a total cop-out. They'll happily take Fed. funding for other things,but NOT for the ACA?
If working poor and disabled South Dakotans die for lack of access to medical care(regardless of which party that they vote)...how does DD and our state legislature think that they deserve to be re- elected?!? They are totally screwing over those that need it most. #facepalm
Your blog headline is basically a lie and you don't appear to give a shit. DD has been proposing this for over a year! He hasn't change his mind at all. Either you haven't been paying attention or you are a liar and just trying to stir shit up. The article you link to even says this is old news.. Did you read it?
planing student. lmao.
Can Governor Daugaard use campaign funds to defend himself against ICWA (select from a scandal du jour) crimes or just plead executive immunity?
Planning Student
Cory didn't reinvent this story, it was widely featured in both the Rapid City Journal and Sioux Falls Argus Leader last week. Planning includes research.
Additionally it is an important story now that the legislature is in session and a bill maybe brought forth for consideration and approval.
I liked the headline, top 10 reasons and chuckled at the sub headline "Here are the top 5 reasons........."
[CAH: My bad, Roger! Consider it fixed!]