S.C. lawmakers look to heal state’s ailing health care system
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - South Carolina’s health care delivery system has been found to be the most fractured of any state in the nation.
It means taxpayer dollars spent to improve people’s health are not paying off – with South Carolinians among some of the unhealthiest Americans.
Last year, a bill to merge several state health agencies fell apart in the final moments of the legislative session – just short of reaching the governor’s desk.
Now lawmakers are reviving that proposal – but with some key changes.
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The day after Gov. Henry McMaster said “we must fix this” during his State of the State address, senators held their first hearing of the year on a bill to address that issue.
It would combine the existing Department of Mental Health, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services – and merge them into a new Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
“Individuals with mental health problems, addiction problems, and disability disorder, they overlap and in many instances are shuttled from one agency to another, and the result is they’re not getting the care they deserve in a timely way. We are failing that particular population,” said Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, the bill’s sponsor.
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The leaders of two of those existing agencies are able to unelected boards.
But ers believe merging the departments into a new cabinet agency able to – and able to be fired by the governor – will make them more responsive to South Carolinians’ needs.
“If you want to have ability and you don’t want to have bureaucratic control and you don’t want to have mission creep, put them under the authority of the chief executive that’s in charge of that executive branch,” Davis said.
Last year, this push was met with criticism from some lawmakers who claimed it would create a position akin to a “health czar.”
Those critiques haven’t gone away.
But ers say that claim is not true.
“I think a lot of you guys have a lot more confidence in our Machiavellian ability to do conspiracy than we do, because if you haven’t noticed, government isn’t as good at creating conspiracy as you think it is,” said Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg.
The bill just had its first hearing this week in a Senate subcommittee, so it’s still several steps away from reaching the governor.
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