Health Care Progress: Rounds Expands State Risk Pool to Kids

One step at a time: We may not have universal health coverage yet, but we're working on it. South Dakota Governor M. Michael Rounds put out a press release this morning announcing an expansion of the South Dakota Risk Pool to cover children whom the private for-profit insurance market won't cover. The risk pool will be open to South Dakota children who've been without coverage for six months or more, have been turned down by private insurers or offered coverage with riders or amendments, and can't get other coverage.

"Every child in South Dakota should have health insurance, and now every child can," says the governor, evidently recognizing the perversity of denying children health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Now if we could just get him to apply that logic to pregnant women and everyone else whom private insurers prefer not to serve.