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ance, patients who often cannot afford to pay for medical care.
• South Dakota hospitals provided nearly $44 million in charity care in 2010, up 21 percent from the year before. Hospitals recover such money by charging more to those who are insured, he said.
• Thousands of South Dakota residents have benefited from provisions of the federal law that have already taken effect, but they would lose those benefits if the law is struck down in court or repealed in Congress.
• Stacie Fredenburg, a spokeswoman for the Community Health Care Association of the Dakotas, said a grant program in the law helps build new community health centers and pay operating expenses for existing ones. The clinics, often located in rural areas that could not support medical clinics without the federal help, would be in trouble if the law is struck down, she said.
• "That money would need to be replaced somehow or existing community health

centers possibly would be in jeopardy of closing," she said.
• Fredenburg said the 44 community health centers in South Dakota treated 58,000 patients last year, including more than 21,000 who were uninsured. Fees are based on a patient's income level.
• The health care overhaul has provided grants to open a clinic in Huron and expand a school-based clinic in Rapid City. De Smet just got a grant to build a center, and Yankton and Flandreau have received grants to plan centers, she said.
• The U.S. Health and Human Services Department estimated in March that more than 15,600 South Dakota residents on Medicare have saved nearly $10.1 million on prescription drugs, an average of about $645 per person. That money helps people after they hit the prescription drug coverage gap, often called the "doughnut hole."
• Federal officials also say about 9,000 young adults in South Dakota have gained insurance coverage under a provision of the law that requires insurance companies to allow those ages 19-25 to remain on their parent's insurance policies.
• Hewett said no matter what the Supreme Court rules, the health care overhaul has helped change the way health care is delivered. Hospitals, doctors and others now focus more on keeping people well instead of just treating them when they are sick, he said.
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