PIERRE - The South Dakota Legislature has rejected a plan to provide government-funded prenatal care to more pregnant women.

Prenatal care is now provided to women earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The Senate had passed a bill that would have changed the Medicaid program to cover women up to 140 percent of the poverty level.

But a negotiating committee of House and Senate members recommended Wednesday that the bill be rejected. The House voted to kill the measure Wednesday, effectively defeating the bill.

An adviser to Gov. Dennis Daugaard says the change is not needed because women who would be covered by the bill can get subsidized insurance beginning next year in the federal health care overhaul.

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