Category: Uncategorized

Medicare Advantage Helps Meet the Needs of South Dakota’s Aging Population
by Bill Cohen, MD

South Dakota’s older population is growing—and quickly. According to projections by a state demographer and South Dakota State University professor, adults over the age of 65 will surpass 20% of our state’s population by 2030. To ensure our communities can meet the complex needs of this growing part of our population, access to affordable, high-quality, comprehensive health care is critical.

That is why programs like Medicare Advantage are so important. Medicare Advantage is the public-private form of Medicare that more than half of all eligible Medicare beneficiaries choose to enroll in because of the broad range of health care services, support programs, and supplement benefits it provides.

Through Medicare Advantage, patients can access dental, vision, and hearing services not covered by traditional Medicare—as well as some more innovative offerings like fitness and wellness programs, nutrition benefits, and preventative care. Moreover, with capped annual out-of-pocket costs, Medicare Advantage patients often end up paying less in medical expenses than those enrolled in traditional Medicare.

Given the vital role this program plays in serving some of our nation’s most vulnerable, at-risk patients, it should be something that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle can agree is worth protecting. Yet, under Biden Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed years of consecutive cuts to program, threatening benefits and increasing premiums for patients.

Importantly, CMS’ Advance Notice released in the final days of the Biden Administration seems to be an attempt to do the right thing, albeit a little late and not quite enough to make much of a difference. In their Advance Notice for 2026, CMS proposed a very slight payment increase. While this is mildly welcome news after the years of cuts Medicare Advantage has endured, there is still more work for lawmakers to do to ensure the long-term success of this vitally important program – with healthcare costs on the rise, and a lot of damage already done by previous years’ cuts. The Republican trifecta must recognize the reality that seniors and their families are looking to them to help protect and strengthen Medicare Advantage—not just in 2026, but for years to come.

Polling in the run-up to Election Day 2024 shows how important this program is to those who use it to access the health care services they need. 86% of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries would be less likely to vote for a Member of Congress who supported cutting funding for MA.

Regardless of who takes the lead, all our lawmakers should be working to keep Medicare Advantage strong so the program can continue to grow along with our aging population. Particularly for states like South Dakota, where our older population is growing at a rapid

Medicare Advantage is absolutely necessary to ensure access to high-quality, affordable, and reliable health care for those who need it most.

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Dr. Bill Cohen is a board-certified pain relief specialist and founder of American Pain Relief Institute.

This is a weird one that seems to not just inch up to the line, but goes over it in trying to confuse Republican Party donors.

Central Dakota Republican Women Federal PAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

Leaders of an auxiliary republican women’s group in South Central South Dakota have apparently created a federal PAC for purposes of raising and spending money in federal races. But the problem is on the application for the Federal PAC, they’re directly saying it has nothing to do with the Republican Party while invoking the Republican Party’s name.

According to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission and made available via the FEC website today, despite deceptively titling themselves as the “Central Dakota Republican Women,” this group helmed by Connie Wagner and Trudy Qualm of Platte, SD, submitted the paperwork to the federal government noting on the form that under the laws governing PACs that “this committee supports/opposes more than one Federal candidate, and is NOT a separate segregated fund or party committee.”

In other words, as leaders of the local Republican women’s club, they’ve created their own private federal political action committee slush fund, given it a name that makes it seem affiliated with the SD Federation of Republican Women or the Republican party at-large, yet will do whatever they want since they declared that to the FEC that it is NOT a …party committee.

This brings up some serious questions. How much money are they going to try to divert from legitimate Republican candidates and groups to their private slush fund? Are they going to try to fool donors to just the Republican Women, or all they trying to hoodwink all Republican Donors to build their piggy bank?  And who do they intend to use the funds for/against? Because if they want to donate to an indy candidate like Justin McNeal in the last election, they have no barriers to doing so.

Not to mention that in filing with the FEC, they’re not playing in South Dakota campaign finance with few rules, and easily forgiven errors. They’re playing in federal campaigning where most people work with attorneys specializing in this sort of thing. And even then, people screw up and it’s very costly.

It is very noteworthy that PAC treasurer Trudy Qualm is also the spouse of SDGOP Chair wannabee Lee Qualm. Which given that this group is falsely titling themselves a Republican Women’s group while declaring on the paperwork that they’re not, it brings it up as a factor in his campaign.  Because if he’s running for party chair, why is his wife filing paperwork to set up a private Federal PAC and pretending to be a fake Republican group?

We can hope that the SDFRW or State Republican Party will get involved so as to not let this PAC lead donors to implied conclusions that could not be farther from the truth.

Apparently Netflix is laying the groundwork to bring the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House on the Prairie” books back to television as a new streaming series that now has the green light:

According to Variety, Netflix recently greenlit a modern reboot of the American classic book series, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, which was a hit NBC show in the 70s, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. Wanting to adapt the books more closely as a long-time fan of Wilder’s work, Sonnenshine will act as showrunner and executive producer of the new Western series. Sonnenshine told the outlet how she hopes to honor both fans of the books and of the TV show.

and..

With more than 73 million copies of the beloved books being sold to date and over 200 episodes of the original NBC series, the new take on the classic is bound to draw a crowd. The original series was even one of the most streamed shows of 2024, according to Variety.

Read that all here.

No immediate information is available on when the series is expected to air.

That has to be good news for future DeSmet SD tourism, home of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum, and the Ingalls homestead.

If you hadn’t thought the school bills were crazy enough this year, then hold my beer – because there’s still time left for bill introductions! The latest is another bill from Rep. Manhart.

This time his House Bill 1201 proposes making everyone who works in a school, from the principal on down to the janitor, mandatory reporters of gay thoughts in school children.

And I wish I was kidding. But I’m not. As stated in the proposed measure:

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 13-32:

A school counselor, or another school staff member, must notify a student’s parent or guardian:

(1) When a direct counseling service is provided to a student;
(2) If a subject is discussed during a direct counseling service that is substantially different from those discussed during previous counseling sessions; and

(3) If questions regarding any of the following topics are discussed with a student during a direct counseling service:

(a) Gender;
(b) Gender confusion;
(c) Gender dysphoria;
(d) Homosexuality; or
(e) Transsexuality.

Is ‘counseling session’ defined that bill? Well sort of in section 1:
“direct counseling service” means an interaction, between a school counselor and a student, pertaining to mental, medical, or emotional health and does not involve career planning or academic discussions.

But section 2 says another school staff member.  So if a lunch lady has an interaction with a kindergartner in the lunch line, and a girl says “they wish they were a boy,” the lunch lady is subject to the mandatory gay thought reporting law?

With all this errant gay thought policing schools HB 1201 will demand schools to take on, I’m not sure when teachers are supposed to get any teaching done. Maybe we need to drop wood shop and accounting?

Remember when people used to say “The government is best which governs least?”

That’s not happening in Pierre this year.

(It might seem like a pick on Scott day, but I’m not the one who is putting his name to these things.)

State Representatives Karla Lems joined by Scott Odenbach have introduced House Bill 1191, a plan to provide property tax relief.  Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, as while it isn’t in the title, the bill is proposing a brand new sky-high 10% tax on “advertising services” for prescription medicines.

The meat and ‘taters of House Bill 1191 is this passage:

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 10-45:

There is imposed a tax of ten percent on the gross receipts of all sales of advertising services for a drug, as defined in subdivision 34-20B-2(1) or (2).

The department shall transfer all moneys collected pursuant to this section to the state treasurer for deposit into the property tax reduction fund established pursuant to section 3 of this Act.

And what is 34-20B-2(1) or 2?

So they want to increase the prices we pay for prescription drugs in the amount of an incredible 10% sales tax every time this catchy jingle runs?:

They avoided affiliating the tax to be derived from advertising of medical equipment too which if I recall taxing medical equipment was a huge bone of contention in a session under Janklow, but in their new big tax on advertising, if Karla’s new tax would pass, it’s full speed ahead against advertisements for Jardiance, Aspirin, or hard right favorite Ivermectin.

Okay, that ad was a parody, but you get my drift.  Why do Karla and Scott think that tax relief is an excuse to come up with targeted sky-high taxes that no one in their right mind has ever proposed before?

If this is what constitutes the new conservative leadership as handed down by the Speaker Pro Tempore, I have to think that Karla “Tax and Lems” might be facing some postcards in the 2026 election.

Tony Venhuizen Confirmed and Sworn In as Lieutenant Governor 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Tony Venhuizen was confirmed as the 40^th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota. Pursuant to Article 4 Section 6 of the South Dakota Constitution, he was sworn in on the floor of the South Dakota State Senate. A photo of that swearing in can be found here. 

“It will be such an honor to serve as presiding officer in this Senate that means so much to me and my family,” said Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen. “I am ready to get to work to help Governor Rhoden keep South Dakota strong, safe, and free.” 

Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen was confirmed by a unanimous vote of both the House and the Senate.

“I am grateful that the legislature accepted my nomination of Lt. Gov. Venhuizen by such resounding margins,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “Now we have our team put together – let’s get to work.”

More information about Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen can be found here.

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According to year-end reports, Congressman Dusty Johnson is coming out of 2024 with a not insignificant campaign kitty built up across his various campaign committees, not the least of which is his primary federal account, Friends of Dusty Johnson.

2024 FEC Dusty Johnson Year End by Pat Powers on Scribd

And Dusty’s friends were very, very good to the Congressman, as after expenditures, the Congressman was left with $5,245,125.00 in his main account. But it doesn’t end there.  Because that’s not his only committee.

To the total, you can also add $253,431.82 cash on hand from the Dakota Leadership PAC, Congressman Johnson’s leadership committee.

Dusty Leadership PAC 2024 Year End Report by Pat Powers on Scribd

And it doesn’t stop there, as Dusty has a State PAC which he mainly uses to support candidates:

2024 Year End Dusty State PAC Sdcfdisclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd

After lending a hand to a long list of Republican candidates, and spending around $48k to personally oppose Amendment G..

Congressman Johnson ended the year with with $277,651.47 in that account.

Totaling them all, we end up with $5,776,208.29 cash on hand, plus a minor amount ($17,500) in another, minor federal PAC.

Walking into the next election cycle with just under $6 million in hand is not exactly a bad position to be in if you have plans to run again.

Regardless of what office that may be.

 

I’m not sure what to say about that which has not already been said..

 

While listening to the testimony for House Bill 1020, the somewhat mainstream conservative school voucher bill which fared more poorly than HB 1009, the extreme hard right school voucher measure, one of the things that I couldn’t help but key in on what was being said.  I also had a legislator confirm that view, when they commented that they thought Scott didn’t do himself any favors by demonizing his opponents.

Despite Odenbach serving as the Republican House Majority Leader, where he should feel the confidence of taking the lead on the legislation, Scott felt the need to take unnecessary swipes at his opponents such as public education, South Dakota Retailers, the SD Chamber like this is a grudge match or he’s preparing mailings.

As you’ll hear from this clipped testimony, it’s as if he can’t help himself from making it personal:

Right on the outset.. opponents have a “monopoly” on money, taxpayer paid lobbyists..  later in testimony another claim of an army of lobbyists paid with your tax dollars and running push polls.

But if you look at how everyone lined up, I tend to think Scott is ignoring the stone in his own eye, while he complains about the mote in that of others.

There were a lot of people representing themselves, and organizations, who took their time to drive to Pierre to raise their objections.

But somehow, I was not able to find in the audio Scott mentioning his own measure’s taxpayer paid lobbyists or special interest groups who were there in favor of his bill:

Blue badges, special interest groups, and I noticed the list of proponents also included Julie Tipton, the person who was in front of the basketball game the other day telling the crowd in a microphone “This is about getting money from our state for non-public schools!“

Let’s not kid ourselves. Under our state laws and constitution, public schools are publicly funded, and private/parochial schools are not. The have nots want access to bleed funds out of that pot of money we’ve reserved for the public education of our children, even though we’re not great about keeping that pot filled in pace with inflation.

If Scott is going to continue to swipe at the public schools he represents in favor of the special interests he wants to pander to, he should at least recognize that he’s not coming to the debate with any more holy righteousness or moral authority than his opponents to school vouchers have in defending education.

And he might find himself more successful if he keeps the campaign postcard rhetoric to himself.  Because you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Attorney General Jackley Announces Sioux Falls Man Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement of Funds From Lincoln County Police Organization

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces a Sioux Falls man has pleaded guilty to one count of Grand Theft by exercising unauthorized control over the Lincoln County Fraternal Order of Police Union’s funds.

Matthew Wilson, 39, entered the guilty plea Tuesday in Lincoln County Circuit Court. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine when he is sentenced at 9 a.m. March 25.

The theft occurred between July, 2024, and September, 2024. Value of the property involved is between $2,500 and $5,000.

The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) investigated the case, and the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted.

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