South Dakota Non-Profit Hospital Net Assets (Financial Strength) Up 90% Since 2008 Financial Meltdown ..... The Main Reason Health Insurance Premiums Are Now Reasonable on Health Insurance Exchange

From a review of the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 3 Non-Profit Hospital Organizations all headquartered in the State of South Dakota with Net Assets (i.e. Financial Strength or Total Assets minus Total Liabilities) at the most recent date reported of more than $400 mil each.

Below here are the Net Assets of these 3 South Dakota Hospital Organizations at both the most recent reported date and also at the end of the Fiscal Year which included the late 2008 US Financial Meltdown:

							Net	Net
							Assets	Assets
						FYE	FYE	%
						Balance	Balance	Increase
						Sheet	Sheet	Since
				Most		Date	Date	FYE
			Most	Recent		Including	Including	Including
			Recent	Balance		2008-09	2008-09	2008-09
			Balance	Sheet		US	US	US
	City	State	Sheet	Net		Financial	Financial	Financial
US Hospital Organization	HQs	HQs	Date	Assets		Meltdown	Meltdown	Meltdown
				mil $s			mil $s
Sanford Health	Sioux Falls	SD	Dec 14	2,110		Jun 09	1,242	70%
Avera Health	Sioux Falls	SD	Dec 14	1,499		Jun 09	675	122%
Regional Health	Rapid City	SD	Dec 14	662		Jun 09	326	103%
Total all 3				4,271			2,243	90%

As you can see from the above chart, the Total Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 3 largest South Dakota Hospital Organizations totaled $4,271 mil, up a very robust 90% from such Total Net Asset amounts of $2,243 mil at their fiscal year ends which included the 2008-09 US Financial Meltdown.

With such an impressive South Dakota Hospital Net Asset percentage increase, a key beneficiary of this will be South Dakota citizens who have elected or will be electing to buy health insurance on the Health Insurance Exchange.  This superb Net Asset growth has given and will continue to give these South Dakota Hospitals the financial flexibility to moderate their pricing for hospital and other health care procedures in their negotiations with health insurance companies which ultimately determines what insurance premium prices are set at by health insurance companies on the Health Insurance Exchange.