Children and the South Dakota Risk Pool 012110 (audio)

Air Date:01/21/2010

By Jackelyn Severin 
 
A bill making its way through the South Dakota Legislature stabilizes premium rates and offers more insurance plans for those who qualify for risk pool insurance. House Bill 1043 also makes it easier for uninsurable children to enter the risk pool. Jill Kruger is with the Department of Revenue and Regulation she says last legislative session lawmakers passed a law allowing children to be apart of the risk pool. Since that time the risk pool board has only received one child application for the program. Kruger says there are over 400 uninsurable children in South Dakota who qualify for risk pool insurance. She says the current process to enter children into the risk pool is long and deters people from applying.

Kruger says, "Currently we require that an applicant receive two denial letters from different insurance companies we would like to change that to require only one insurer rejection. This will help encourage agents to place uninsurable children in the pool and simplify the process if somebody is applying on their own."
 
Kruger says House Bill 1043 also allows the risk pool board to have more open enrollment periods for risk pool insurance instead of just one.
 
House bill 1043 passed a legislative committee today and will next be debated on the House floor.

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