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• South Dakota's Medicaid program now covers about 116,000 children, adults and disabled people. The expanded eligibility would add an estimated 48,000 people, mostly adults without children.
• People earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $15,451 for a single person or $31,809 for a family of four -- would be covered by an expansion. The federal government would fully cover those added to Medicaid rolls through 2016, and the state's contribution would rise in stages to 10 percent of the costs by 2020.
• Daugaard last year asked that South Dakota be allowed to expand Medicaid eligibility only up to 100 percent of the poverty level because those above that mark can qualify for subsidized private insurance under the health care overhaul. Federal officials rejected his request.
• Hunhoff said legislators will begin to draft Medicaid proposals in the next week, probably including requests for a federal waiver to expand only to 100 percent of the poverty level.
• The Democrat said a full Medicaid expansion would bring $300 million in federal funding a year into the state, helping many poor people who cannot afford private insurance and saving some rural hospitals and clinics.
• Cronin said if federal officials want states to expand Medicaid, they should give each state some flexibility in how that is done.
• "They also need to understand we run our state how we think it should best be run," Cronin said.
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