South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard
South Dakota is among the "hell no" states when it comes to Obamacare. No state-established insurance exchange and surely no Medicaid expansion. They don't want no stinking federal aid to help more people have health insurance. To be clear, though, that's the legislature and the governor talking.
Not the people.
Despite a poll showing a majority of South Dakotans favor Medicaid expansion, Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s office said Wednesday he has no plans to introduce legislation to expand health care in the state.
In a survey released earlier this week by the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, 63 percent of 400 state residents favored Medicaid expansion while 31 percent opposed it.
The others polled had no opinion. Republican pollster Glen Bolger conducted the poll for Alexandria, Va.-based research firm Public Opinion Strategies. The poll's margin of error is 4.9 percent.
Yes, that's a small sample size, but it's still a pretty astounding result in such a conservative state. But South Dakota has about 48,000 people who are uninsured, also quite a lot for a small state. Medicaid expansion would save about 25,000 from falling through the Medicaid gap their governor has created, and bring about $57 million to the state this year.