• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Legislature rejected a plan to provide government-funded prenatal care to more low-income women Wednesday after officials from Gov. Dennis Daugaard's office said it was unnecessary.
• The Medicaid program run jointly by the state and federal governments provides prenatal care to South Dakota women earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. The state Senate had passed a bill that would have raised the income limits to cover women earning up to 140 percent of the poverty level, but the House refused to accept the Senate version of the measure.
• A negotiating committee of three senators and three representatives was appointed to seek a compromise. But the negotiating committee recommended that the bill be killed after House Republicans said they could not support the proposal. The House later voted 61-3 to kill the measure.
• The measure's main sponsor, Sen. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton, said prenatal care should be provided to more women because it would reduce the number of babies born with severe health problems. The bill would have cost the state an extra $464,000, but Hunhoff said the additional prenatal care for an estimated 139 women a year would have saved an estimated $450,000 in care for babies born with health problems.
• Deb Bowman, a senior adviser to the governor, told the legislative negotiating committee that the change was not needed because women who would have been covered by the bill will be able to get government-subsidized insurance beginning next January under the federal health care overhaul. The most people can pay for that subsidized insurance is 2 percent of their income, she said.
• Sen. Deb Peters, R-Hartford, said she believes the state should have provided money to cover the additional low-income women for the rest of this year until the subsidized insurance is available.
• Sen. Billie Sutton, D-Burke, argued that the change should have been made because a single woman earning 140 percent of the poverty level is only making $16,086 a year.
• "That's not a lot of money, folks," Sutton said.
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