Health Insurance for Everyone? HB 1169/SB 132

More hoghousing (remind me to teach the kids this word when we do Student Congress in March and April): The State Affairs Committee last Friday tabled a couple of measures (HB 1166 and HB 1170 intended to make it easier to get and keep health insurance in South Dakota. They then hoghoused HB 1169, a "carcass" bill with no specific provisions but an enactment statement calling for a version of the Massachusetts plan to require everyone to have insurance, penalize those who don't buy it, and help the poor get it. State Affairs didn't create any requirement to buy insurance (which still strikes me as the wrong approach, like passing a law to solve hunger by requiring everyone to buy food), but instead rewrote the bill to authorize the creation of the "Zaniya Project Task Force" (Denise Ross at Hog House Blog informs me that zaniya means "good health" in Lakota) charged with creating a plan, complete with timelines, cost estimates, and funding sources, providing health insurance to South Dakota's uninsured. If this measure passes (and the Senate has its own version in SB 132), the task force will have until September 30 to compose and present its report.

I'm for less talk and more action, but on a complicated issue like this, we need to do some serious study and consider how to help all South Dakotans. The bill mandates at least two lay people be named to this task force, so hey! Governor Rounds! Pick me! You're going to need an advocate for a single-payer plan on the panel, and I'd be honored to serve.