Tuesday,  April 1, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 257 • 24 of 36

(Continued from page 23)

• "Individuals, all they have to do is pick up the phone, call healthcare.gov and indicate that they are in line to get health insurance; then they get more time to be able to wait out the storm," Muller said.
• Despite the weather, Muller added, the group received more calls and walk-ins than usual at its four informational sites in Yankton, Mitchell, Aberdeen and Sioux Falls. She said the group had received 8,600 applications as of Sunday night.
• Complicating the enrollment process Monday, the health care website fell out of service for nearly four hours early Monday and experienced other technical problems later in the day. South Dakota is among the 36 states using the federal website to enroll people.
• The latest enrollment numbers, covering Oct. 1 through March 1, showed only about 6,765 of the 16,047 who applied for a plan actually had selected one. The Obama administration had hoped to enroll 19,000 South Dakota residents by March 31, according to estimates in a Sept. 5 departmental memo to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
• Residents shopping for a plan using the federal website had three insurers to choose from: Avera, Sanford Health Plan and Dakotacare.
• The president of the Sanford Health Plan, Ruth Krystopolski, said the group received 230 applications on Sunday alone as residents raced against the deadline. She said the company had received more than 2,600 applications through the marketplace.
• Aside from the federal enrollment website, South Dakota residents could shop for coverage directly from insurers. But those who chose that option couldn't receive federal subsidies available to some with qualifying incomes under the law.
• Dakotacare, owned by the South Dakota State Medical Association, offered 19 individual and two small group plans through the marketplace during the enrollment period. The insurer's chief marketing officer, Greg Jammers, said 49 individuals and one group had signed up for one of the insurer's plans as of March 15.

SD Governor closes state offices due to snowstorm

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The state offices in western and central South Dakota have been closed because of a spring snowstorm.
• Gov. Dennis Daugaard Monday afternoon announced the closure of offices in Campbell, Haakon, Hughes, Potter, Stanley, Sully and Walworth counties, including the state capital Pierre.
• Counties in the western part of the state where the storm hit first closed their of

(Continued on page 25)

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.