Updated: Hospitals in better shape where states expanded Medicaid

Brookings is expected to spend at least $46 million on the city's hospital asking property owners to fund $30 million of the improvements after GOP lawmakers stopped Democratic efforts to remove the cap on property taxes set by the Janklow administration.

Montana's Democratic governor has signed a bill into law that expands Medicaid for that state's working class.

In states that expanded eligibility for Medicaid, hospitals that handle large numbers of low-income patients are faring better under the Affordable Care Act than those in states that haven't, according to two new reports released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Read more here.

Democrats in the South Dakota legislature care about the 48,000 residents living without access to affordable health care and insurance while the Republican Party cares only about killing it.

As part of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will fund over ninety percent of the expansion, which would extend health coverage to about forty eight thousand low income adults. While generally opposed to that expansion, Governor Dennis Daugaard says they are having continued discussions with Medicaid service providers. Daugaard says part of the discussion centers on helping several thousand people manage their chronic health conditions. Daugaard says providing health care to those in rural areas is one of the major challenges for providers. Daugaard says the state continues to talk to the federal government about possible Medicaid waivers. [WNAX]

North Dakota has accepted the Affordable Care Act for the betterment of that state's working class.

One estimate says 9 percent of rural South Dakota hospitals are vulnerable to closure http://t.co/cyYPRyk0Yf

— KELO News (@keloland) May 1, 2015

Republican governors see Medicaid expansion as another opportunity to stigmatize working poor http://t.co/dj8w1PzVMc pic.twitter.com/S7m2dNlStG

— Daily Kos (@dailykos) April 30, 2015