SD will not run its own health insurance exchange - KOTA Territory News

SD will not run its own health insurance exchange

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ Gov. Dennis Daugaard says South Dakota will not set up its own health insurance exchange, but instead will let the federal government run the exchange required by the federal health care overhaul.

President Obama's health care law requires all states to have exchanges, which are online marketplaces for patients and small businesses to shop for insurance policies. Daugaard says South Dakota will join other states that have decided not to run their own exchanges.

"I oppose the federal healthcare law because it is a large expansion of government that does little about the rising cost of health care. My first hope is that the next President and Congress will repeal this ill-advised law. In the absence of that, our state must work to ensure that even as the federal government implements this law, the state retains control over the regulation of health insurance. I believe South Dakotans want our own citizens doing the regulation. We do not want to cede control of that to the federal government."

The governor says annual operating costs for a state-operated exchange would be too expensive, costing between $6.3 million and $7.7 million.