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care, he said.
• "People stay healthier when they have health insurance coverage. For people who are poor and can't get that coverage currently, this is important to them," Hewett said.
• South Dakota's Medicaid program now covers about 116,000 children, adults and disabled people at a cost of $300 million a year to the state.
• Most of the estimated 48,000 low-income people who aren't covered are adults without children, Daugaard said.
• State officials are conducting a study on how much they would cost.
• "Is it sick people? Is it mostly young people? Young adults are cheaper to cover than 60-year-olds," he said.
• Daugaard said he doubts any Medicaid expansion will come by 2014, when much of the federal law goes into effect. But he said it might be possible in 2015 or 2016.
• He said he hopes federal officials will allow flexibility on the income ceiling for eligibility, what ages to cover or what medical services would be included.
• Under the new system, the federal government will cover the full cost of Medicaid expansions through 2016. The state's contribution would then begin to rise in stages to 10 percent.
• However, Daugaard said the state would still have to pay millions in additional administrative costs. Overall, he said, the extra cost could be a "pretty sizable amount."
• Hewett, representing the hospitals, said South Dakota hospitals were unable to collect $89 million for patient care in 2010, either through charity cases or bills people did not pay.
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