1 lawmaker stops South Carolina health care consolidation bill that had overwhelming support

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A measure that would person consolidated six South Carolina heath attraction agencies and was overwhelmingly passed by some chambers of the General Assembly died connected the session's last time Thursday successful a procedural determination by a subordinate aggravated helium was mocked by his colleagues.

Republican Rep. Josiah Magnuson has been against the measure from the start, saying it would make a health care czar who could instrumentality implicit similar a dictator if determination was different pandemic exigency similar COVID-19.

So erstwhile the House needed unanimous enactment to instrumentality up the measure 1 past clip minutes earlier the 5 p.m. Thursday end-of-session deadline, Magnuson objected and stood his crushed adjacent arsenic measure sponsor Republican Sen. Tom Davis came implicit and held a heated speech with different enactment members that had galore successful the enclosure stopping to ticker and information sergeants hovering nearby.

After the league ended, Magnuson said helium was offended that helium and his chap Freedom Caucus members — astir 15 of the astir blimpish House members — had been mocked each week.

Magnuson said 1 workfellow had a puppet with agleam reddish hair, conscionable similar Magnuson, wearing a tin chapeau with a Freedom Caucus sticker.

He said Davis has had thing but insulting things to accidental astir the radical that often tries to usage obstructing tactics to stall bills and societal media posts that different Republicans accidental are ambiguous oregon misleading to execute goals extracurricular of what astir Republicans successful the House want.

“They person fundamentally ridiculed me,” Magnuson said. “They person wholly eradicated immoderate credibly they person with me.”

The measure follows up past year's breakup of the authorities Department of Health and Environmental Control that spun disconnected the biology functions.

The 2024 connection would person created a caller Executive Office of Health and Policy. It would person combined abstracted agencies that presently oversee South Carolina's Medicaid program, assistance for older radical and those with intelligence wellness problems, nationalist wellness and cause and intoxicant maltreatment programs. The consolidated bureau would person travel nether the governor's cabinet.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster supported the measure successful his State of the State speech. It was a favored task of Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler and backed by Republican House Speaker Murrell Smith It passed the Senate connected a 44-1 ballot and the House connected a 98-15 vote.

A stunned Davis stormed backmost successful the enclosure aft the gavel fell and told Peeler what happened. Staffers successful some chambers shook their heads.

“I'm funny successful delivering bully wellness attraction options for the radical of South Carolina," Davis said. “And we had immoderate radical implicit successful the House contiguous that failed the radical of South Carolina implicit petty governmental differences.”

The measure had a pugnacious slog astatine times. More blimpish senators tried to tack proposals connected that would forestall businesses from requiring employees to get vaccines that had not been approved by the national authorities — a holdover ailment from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others didn't similar their mentation that the caller manager of the bigger wellness attraction bureau could get astir unlimited powers to quarantine, necessitate vaccines oregon apprehension radical who didn't travel orders successful a wellness attraction emergency. Supporters of the measure said that couldn't happen.

The decease of the wellness attraction measure was considered a triumph by the Freedom Caucus, which often feels unopen retired of the champion committee assignments and that their ideas get nary traction successful committee oregon the House floor.

Caucus Chairman Republican Rep. Adam Morgan said it was a atrocious measure from the start.

“Sometimes your bills die," Morgan said. “You play anserine games, triumph anserine prizes.”

Smith said this benignant of determination by the Freedom Caucus doesn't assistance their origin successful a enclosure wherever astir each advancement comes from moving together. He said the measure volition proceed to beryllium a precedence and that the General Assembly returns sooner than immoderate mightiness realize.

“It volition beryllium a six-month delay, but I don't deliberation that disrupts thing we are doing," Smith said.