South Dakota Health Care Stories
Click on stories below from real South Dakotans
sharing their experiences with health care

Marlys  – Brookings, SD
“...we always wondered what we had missed
that might have been important.”

Jennifer – Cavour, SD
“I also live in constant fear of losing my health
insurance should I be laid off or lose my job.” 

Lindsey – Clark, SD 
“I am out of money before I am out of month…
I will probably be paying on that bill long after
he has graduated from high school.” 

Mary – Howard, SD
“We dropped that insurance company for our
family health insurance plan, which was going up
$2000 a year but I had to stay with the old company
since our new insurance company put a rider on me
for my pre-existing condition of cancer.”

Kandi – Irene, SD
“While I appreciate that my employer provides health
benefits, it is really hard to pay the doctor bills when
your hours are getting cut.”

Lynn – Madison, SD
“The cost for my insurance each month is already
almost the same as my monthly mortgage payment.
And because I'm more of a ‘risk,’ my premium went
up almost $100 more dollars a month in 2009.  I had
to up my deductible just so I could afford to pay a
premium.”

Rhonda – Madison, SD
“Most of us avoid going to the doctor because we
have already spent $800 or more a month for
insurance and can't afford to pay the doctor bill.”

Cindy – Mitchell, SD
“I don't know if I can truly afford to maintain
insurance for my children.”

Lori – Mitchell, SD
“We need better research on costs, better doctor's
knowledge of all costs and more integration of
alternative healthcare.”

Brian Smith, MD – Rapid City, SD
“Two key factors to keep in mind going forward
are that we currently have universal coverage,
but neither effective, nor efficient coverage. Secondly,
the bureaucratic, non-health related overhead is
skimming an excessive amount of healthcare dollars
from a faltering system.”

Rhonda -- Roberts County, SD
“It is imperative that there is access to medical
care close to your community.”

Carol – Sioux Falls, SD
“Then what do you do when you run out of insurance?...
I could discontinue the treatments completely and lose
the quality of life I have with the treatments.”

Eileen – Sioux Falls, SD
“After my COBRA ran out, I had to purchase my own
health insurance. Due to the cost, I had to accept
insurance with a high deductible, one which will
hopefully partially cover any major medical event.”

Pam -- Sioux Falls
“People, who are not healthy, cannot get insurance.”

Renae – Sioux Falls, SD
“We haven't been to a dentist for years. I desperately
need glasses to see in the distance, but I make do
using my son's old glasses when I drive.

Shana Casey – Sioux Falls, SD
“My son, who couldn't communicate and couldn't
function as other children, would receive NO coverage
for ANY sort of therapy.  For him, that means falling
through the cracks of the system.” 

Sioux Falls Physician
“As I learned from an attending in medical school,
‘the patient will tell you exactly what is wrong,
if only you’ll listen.”

Robert – Spearfish, SD
“…both daughters have pre-existing medical
conditions. Do they have health insurance?
The answer is a qualified, yes.”

Clark -- Trent, SD
"How I am ever going to pay for this, I don’t know.
I have a small business but am not a rich man, I just
make a living. It looks like health care reform is coming
too late for my wife, but there so many others with no
insurance."

Linda – Vermillion, SD
“Somewhere there has got to be help for us who
don't have insurance, as well as a limit put on the
prices for medical treatment and what is being
billed to the insurance company.”

Julie – Watertown, SD
“It seems like the thing he needs the most will
become the thing he can’t afford to keep.”