Medicaid cuts in federal budget could hit SD rural health hard

  • The Isabel Clinic is operated by Horizon Health Care, which has 18 other clinics that treat a combined 26,000 patients a year. Photo by Jon Flatland
    The Isabel Clinic is operated by Horizon Health Care, which has 18 other clinics that treat a combined 26,000 patients a year. Photo by Jon Flatland

    Wade Erickson doesn’t want to seem like an alarmist.

    But Erickson, CEO of Horizon Health Care in South Dakota, has serious concerns about how the Medicaid cuts embedded in the giant taxation and budget law signed by President Donald Trump will affect the health of South Dakotans, especially in rural areas.

    Horizon provides medical care to people across a 28,000 square-mile area of the state. Each ye…