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Committee on a 4-3 vote as they referred the bill to Appropriations with a "Do Pass" recommendation.
• Continued advocacy for our citizens came with SB 122 which would provide audiology services for South Dakota's children. Prior to bringing this issue forward, insurance companies actually provided no coverage for hearing aids.  It was all out of pocket, unless those requiring services were Medicaid eligible. SB 122 did not require insurance companies to offer this benefit, but sought to define what those benefits should be if the insurance companies chose to offer a plan.  It lays out guidelines which include providing for physician care and licensed audiology services.   Due to support for this issue, 3 of the 4 biggest insurance companies in the state are now committed to covering these life-changing services. Another related bill (HB1166) was supported by the Governor through the Health and Human Services Department.  It proposes to expand the use of the Telecommunications for the Deaf Fund to provide hearing aids on a sliding scale according to economic need.  The fund has been growing over the years with 15 cents from every phone line, including cellular, contributing to the fund. Let's hope that these efforts will help children.  Proper diagnosis and services to hearing impaired children will change lives.
• Our Caucus viewed Medicaid Expansion as the single most important decision made this Session. Democratic leadership is in continual communication with the federal offices of Health and Human Services and is working cooperatively to get something done-hopefully still this Session.
• States have been trying to find ways to provide health care coverage to low-income adults for decades and they've largely failed. There are an estimated 48,000 South Dakotans in that category. They are mostly single adults working in low-wage jobs that don't provide insurance. A recent study released by the New England Journal of Medicine said that 94 lives in South Dakota would be saved each year from Medicaid Expansion.
• Perhaps it's not a problem for the uninsured; that is until they have a health problem. Even then, they usually get medical care. But it's not always done in an efficient way. Too often, they show up in expensive emergency rooms. Or they wait to see a doctor until a small problem becomes a big deal.
• The cost is usually absorbed by the clinics and hospitals. But they have to charge the rest of us more to cover the charity care. One study suggested that we all pay $1,000 more a year just in premiums to cover the uninsured. We also pay higher taxes because some of the costs are born by county governments.
• And it costs us in other ways. If an uninsured worker doesn't get health care, he or she sometimes becomes less productive at work. And they are always just a bro

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