KELO AM-FM

By: Roz Brown

For the first time in a decade, the number of children without health coverage in the U.S. has gone up.  According to a new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, the number of uninsured children rose by more than 275,000 in 2017, and South Dakota’s percentage increase was one of the largest in the nation.  The state’s smaller population means the numbers are not as large as some states, but 3,000 children lost health insurance here in just one year. According to Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center, the state is one of nine that saw dramatic increases in the rate of uninsured children. “We found three-quarters of the children who lost coverage between 2016 and 2017 live in states that have not expanded Medicaid to their parents and other adults,” she states. South Dakota is one of a handful of states that has not expanded Medicaid, a fact that may be contributing to the inability of parents to provide health insurance for their children.

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