1 Lawmaker Blocks South Carolina Healthcare Consolidation Bill That Had Overwhelming Support

COLOMBIA, SC – A bill that would have consolidated six South Carolina health agencies and was overwhelmingly approved by both chambers of the General Assembly died on the final day of the session, Thursday, in a procedural move by a member angry at being ridiculed by his colleagues.

Republican Rep. Josiah Magnuson was against the bill from the start, saying it would create a health care czar who could take power like a dictator if there was another pandemic emergency like COVID-19.

So when the House needed unanimous support to pass the bill one last time, minutes before the session’s 5 p.m. deadline on Thursday, Magnuson stood in opposition and stood his ground, even as Republican Sen. Tom Davis, project sponsor, approached and had a heated conversation. with other party members who had many in the chamber stopping to observe and security sergeants hovering nearby.

After the session ended, Magnuson said he was offended that he and his fellow Freedom Caucus members — about 15 of the House’s most conservative members — had been ridiculed all week.

Magnuson said a colleague had a doll with bright red hair, just like Magnuson, wearing a tin hat with a Freedom Caucus sticker.

He said Davis had nothing but insults to say about the group that often tries to use obstructionist tactics to delay bills and social media posts that other Republicans consider ambiguous or misleading to achieve goals outside of what most Republicans in the Chamber wants.

“They basically ridiculed me,” Magnuson said. “They completely eradicated any credibility they had with me.”

The project follows last year’s dissolution of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, which spun off environmental functions.

The 2024 proposal would have created a new Executive Office of Health and Policy. It would have combined separate agencies that currently oversee South Carolina’s Medicaid program, help for seniors and people with mental health problems, public health, and drug and alcohol abuse programs. The consolidated agency would fall under the governor’s office.

Republican Governor Henry McMaster supported the project in his State of the State address. It was a pet project of Senate Republican Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler and supported by Republican House Speaker Murrell Smith. It was approved in the Senate by 44 votes to 1 and in the Chamber by 98 votes to 15.

Stunned, Davis returned to the chamber after the hammer fell and told Peeler what happened. Staff from both chambers shook their heads.

“I’m interested in providing good health care options for the people of South Carolina,” Davis said. “And today we had some people in the House who failed the people of South Carolina over small political differences.”

The bill was difficult at times. More conservative senators have tried to adopt proposals that would prevent companies from requiring employees to receive vaccines that have not been approved by the federal government — a holdover complaint from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others didn’t like his interpretation that the new director of the largest health agency could gain nearly unlimited powers to quarantine, require vaccinations or arrest people who don’t follow orders in a health emergency. Proponents of the project said that could not happen.

The death of the health care bill was considered a victory by the Freedom Caucus, which often feels excluded from top committee assignments and that its ideas don’t gain traction in committee or on the House floor.

Caucus Chairman Republican Rep. Adam Morgan said it was a bad bill from the start.

“Sometimes your accounts die,” Morgan said. “You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.”

Smith said this type of move by the Freedom Caucus doesn’t help its cause in a chamber where almost all progress comes from working together. He said the project will continue to be a priority and that the General Assembly will return sooner than some imagine.

“It will be a six-month delay, but I don’t think it will hinder anything we’re doing,” Smith said.