SD falling further behind other red states in well being index

As GOP Governor Dennis Daugaard continues to fail key leadership tests South Dakota stumbles again on access to affordable medical care.

A new Gallup survey has found that the two states with the most dramatic drop in their respective rates of uninsured are Kentucky and Arkansas, both deeply red in presidential years. Red states that did not expand Medicaid or embrace a state-run exchange, however, continue to have brutally high rates of uninsured. All 10 of the states with the highest uninsured rates have refused to carry out those two key parts of Obamacare. "States that have implemented two of the law's core mechanisms -- Medicaid expansion and state health exchanges -- are seeing a substantially larger drop in the uninsured rate than states that did not take both of these actions," Gallup announced. "Consequently, the gap in uninsured rates that existed between these two groups in 2013 nearly doubled in 2014." [Ryan Grim]