Madison Daily Leader, Oct. 21
Bryon Noem initiative will be well received
First Gentleman Bryon Noem launched an initiative to bring new attention to South Dakota’s small towns, a plan that should be well received.
The title “First Gentleman” is new to South Dakota, having elected our state’s woman governor in 2018. Previous spouses of governors have been known as “First Ladies.”
Many First Ladies have used that distinction to launch an initiative for the public good, usually something that is personally important to them. Recent First Lady Linda Daugaard promoted literacy as her top priority, but also supported efforts to reducing infant mortality, promoting STEM education, and promoting foster parenting.
Bryon Noem intends to remind people of the hidden gems of South Dakota’s small towns and places off the beaten path. “Our hometowns are the heartbeat of our state, and I want to highlight them. I want to remind people that South Dakota’s rural communities are some of the best places to raise a family or to start a business,” he said.
It isn’t yet clear how Noem intends to do this, nor how he intends to measure success. He has indicated he wants to travel to small towns, listen to people’s stories and distribute them widely.
We believe the idea behind his initiative will be well-received. Those of us at the Daily Leader have always believed in the smaller towns in our coverage area, like Rutland, Ramona, Wentworth and Chester, and have told their stories every chance we get.
We hope Noem can be successful in his effort, and look forward to its impact on rural South Dakota.
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Aberdeen American News, Oct. 26
Events sadden our souls, but release kindness everywhere
If you want to know what the Malchow family means to Aberdeen, you only needed to peek inside the fellowship hall of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Last Wednesday morning, the hall looked as if it was a large department store loaded with dry goods, clothing, toiletries, food and other items people need to restart their lives.
That was just days after a devastating Main Street fire that continues to tug at our heartstrings. The smell of charred brick and wood as you drive down Main Street continues to break our hearts.
That Oct. 19-20 fire rampaged through an iconic Aberdeen business in a historic part of the city, destroying everything in its path, including Malchow’s Home Furnishing and apartments on the second floor. It also affected a neighboring hardware store and Christian bookstore.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. And that’s the most important part.
Malchow’s multi- generational business has been a Main Street fixture since 1945. It is family-owned, family-run and family-trusted.
Through the years, the Malchows came to be known as honest and hard-working business owners offering quality goods, and as people who care about their community and who give back to it as much as possible.
Their kindness was reflected in that overloaded fellowship hall at the church the Malchows attend. People were responding to help the displaced victims of those apartments above the store.
But they were also giving in a big way because of who the Malchow family is. And in typical Malchow fashion, as members of the family watched their brick-and-mortar legacy burn, they expressed concern about their apartment tenants and the safety of those working to extinguish the fire.
The Malchows have always taken care of Aberdeen. Now, it is time for Aberdeen to take care of the Malchows and their extended apartment-dwelling families.
A big shout of thanks to all those who have helped and are helping to pick up the pieces in the past few days. Especially the emergency responders, law enforcers and firefighters.
And to the volunteers and those who have donated, thank you. It was heartwarming to see so many delivering food and water to firefighters Saturday night and Sunday morning.
“The community has been wonderful,” Brown County Emergency Management Director Scott Meints said about the support shown to the first responders. “Food, drink, snacks, you name it. Everybody has stepped up.”
Many of the same people were involved in the search for a recent missing plane. That single-engine plane took off from the Aberdeen airport Oct. 9, and crashed shortly after takeoff.
The wreckage was found Oct. 21 3 miles north of town.
A lot of people, including volunteers of all ages, participated in that nearly two-week search.
It is said that in time of tragedy, true character is revealed. In recent weeks, Aberdeen has been tested.
With Aberdeen’s soul bared with these sad events, we like what we see in the hearts of many who live here and in the region.
Thank you all.
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Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, Oct. 25.
Coverage for autism treatments worth fighting for
When two of the state’s largest health insurance providers announced that they would no longer cover an expensive but effective evidence-based treatment for severe autism on small group and individual plans, South Dakota parents whose children relied on the treatment panicked.
Applied behavioral analysis, or ABA, had allowed their children to make hard-won gains such as the ability to speak or to stop hurting themselves and others. Parents watched despairingly in some cases as those gains started to fall away.
A South Dakota law passed in 2014 has required medically necessary ABA coverage from health insurers since 2015. Exceptions were carved out, though, for small group and individual plans. A proposed law that would have closed that loophole was killed in the State Affairs Committee after heavy lobbying from insurance companies and the state’s insurance division.
Twice since then, Governor Kristi Noem’s administration has thrown lifelines to these families. This summer, the federal government granted approval to changes South Dakota submitted regarding its Essential Health Benefits Plan. Beginning in 2021, tiered ABA coverage based on a child’s age will be required of all private policies.
Although relief was on the way, the treatment - which can range from $40,000 to $100,000 a year - would have remained uncovered by insurance and financially out of reach for families on small group or individual plans for a full two years. ABA therapy’s gains are greatest in young children. Missing treatment over that time would close the door on early intervention for children shut out of coverage.
Again, Noem rode to the rescue. Her administration brokered a deal with Sanford and Avera health plans to add ABA coverage to its 2020 small group and individual plans. Unfortunately, families who purchase their insurance through the state’s health insurance marketplace are still shut out, since the deadline for companies to submit those plans has already passed.
Unless state lawmakers can push through some sort of emergency measure to assist these families, 2019 and 2020 represent a lost therapeutic opportunity for their children. Uncertainty over their future grows.
Potential pitfalls lie ahead with the fixes patched together by the state in its negotiations with insurance companies. In passing their own autism-related statutes last year, North Dakota and Tennessee both cited across-the-board ABA coverage as necessary for compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. The MHPAEA was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008.
And lawsuits against insurance companies whose ABA coverage features treatment limits based on age - as South Dakota’s latest Essential Health Benefits Plan lays out - are gaining traction across the country. The health insurer Anthem settled one such class action suit over ABA coverage limitations last year.
Parents are also concerned about how much staying power the 2021 treatment requirements will have. Essential health benefits plans are subject to change more quickly and with more departmental latitude than a mandate written into state law might be. There’s also concern over how binding the temporary patch is that Sanford and Avera have agreed on to secure treatment for some children through 2020.
The semantics and process pieces of this problem can overshadow other practical concerns and costs versus benefits. The State Affairs Committee rejected the proposed legislative fix after the lobbying efforts of the state Division of Insurance, which claimed prohibitive costs should the state need to cover a new mandate. In killing the bill, the committee weighed the $1.4 million cost to the state as heavier than the $3.2 million cost per child over a lifetime of care.
In those committee hearings, insurance companies also warned of increased premium costs to consumers due to greater financial risk. But when Missouri mandated coverage of all policies in 2018, premiums only increased by 51 cents a month. When South Carolina did the same in 2015, insurance premiums went up by a mere 40 cents a month.
Given the high stakes involved, it behooves our state legislature to take another run at this topic to try to ensure that loopholes don’t serve as obstacles for South Dakota children in need.
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