Current:Home > Scams1 lawmaker stops South Carolina health care consolidation bill that had overwhelming support -TradeWise
1 lawmaker stops South Carolina health care consolidation bill that had overwhelming support
View
Date:2025-04-14 21:16:22
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill that would have consolidated six South Carolina heath care agencies and was overwhelmingly passed by both chambers of the General Assembly died on the session’s final day Thursday in a procedural move by a member angry he was mocked by his colleagues.
Republican Rep. Josiah Magnuson has been against the bill from the start, saying it would create a health care czar who could take over like a dictator if there was another pandemic emergency like COVID-19.
So when the House needed unanimous support to take up the bill one last time minutes before the 5 p.m. Thursday end-of-session deadline, Magnuson objected and stood his ground even as bill sponsor Republican Sen. Tom Davis came over and held a heated conversation with other party members that had many in the chamber stopping to watch and security sergeants hovering nearby.
After the session ended, Magnuson said he was offended that he and his fellow Freedom Caucus members — roughly 15 of the most conservative House members — had been mocked all week.
Magnuson said one colleague had a puppet with bright red hair, just like Magnuson, wearing a tin hat with a Freedom Caucus sticker.
He said Davis has had nothing but insulting things to say about the group that often tries to use obstructing tactics to stall bills and social media posts that other Republicans say are ambiguous or misleading to achieve goals outside of what most Republicans in the House want.
“They have basically ridiculed me,” Magnuson said. “They have completely eradicated any credibly they have with me.”
The bill follows up last year’s breakup of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control that spun off the 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 older people and those with mental health problems, public health and drug and alcohol abuse programs. The consolidated agency would have come under the governor’s cabinet.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster supported the bill in his State of the State speech. It was a pet project of Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler and backed by Republican House Speaker Murrell Smith It passed the Senate on a 44-1 vote and the House on a 98-15 vote.
A stunned Davis stormed back in the chamber after the gavel fell and told Peeler what happened. Staffers in both chambers shook their heads.
“I’m interested in delivering good health care options for the people of South Carolina,” Davis said. “And we had some people over in the House today that failed the people of South Carolina over petty political differences.”
The bill had a tough slog at times. More conservative senators tried to tack proposals on that would prevent businesses from requiring employees to get vaccines that had not been approved by the federal government — a holdover complaint from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Others didn’t like their interpretation that the new director of the bigger health care agency could get nearly unlimited powers to quarantine, require vaccines or arrest people who didn’t follow orders in a health care emergency. Supporters of the bill said that couldn’t happen.
The death of the health care bill was considered a win by the Freedom Caucus, which often feels shut out of the best committee assignments and that their ideas get no traction in committee or the House floor.
Caucus Chairman Republican Rep. Adam Morgan said it was a bad bill from the start.
“Sometimes your bills die,” Morgan said. “You play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Smith said this kind of move by the Freedom Caucus doesn’t help their cause in a chamber where almost all progress comes from working together. He said the bill will continue to be a priority and that the General Assembly returns sooner than some might realize.
“It will be a six-month delay, but I don’t think that disrupts anything we are doing,” Smith said.
veryGood! (1)
Related
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- Nebraska governor approves regulations to allow gender-affirming care for minors
- Trade: Pittsburgh Steelers sending WR Diontae Johnson to Carolina Panthers
- Zoë Kravitz brings boyfriend Channing Tatum to Lenny Kravitz's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony
- Have Dry, Sensitive Skin? You Need To Add These Gentle Skincare Products to Your Routine
- '9-1-1' Season 7: Premiere date, time, cast, channel, where to watch new episodes
- Pennsylvania governor backs a new plan to make power plants pay for greenhouse gases
- Some college basketball coaches make more than their NBA counterparts
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- 2024 Oscars ratings reveal biggest viewership in 4 years
Ranking
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- 'Dateline' correspondent Keith Morrison remembers stepson Matthew Perry: 'Not easy'
- TEA Business College The leap from quantitative trading to artificial
- U.S. giving Ukraine $300 million in weapons even as Pentagon lacks funds to replenish stockpile
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Appeal coming from North Carolina Republicans in elections boards litigation
- Which eclipse glasses are safe? What to know about scams ahead of April 8 solar eclipse
- Schedule, bracket, storylines and what to know for the Big East men's tournament
Recommendation
Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
Cop boss says marauding rats are getting high on marijuana at New Orleans police headquarters
Proposal would allow terminal patients in France to request help to die
Man pleads guilty to shooting that badly wounded Omaha police officer
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
Bears signing Jonathan Owens, Simone Biles' husband, to 2-year deal: 'Chicago here he comes'
Ohio’s Republican primaries for US House promise crowded ballots and a heated toss-up
How to Google better: 7 tricks to get better results when searching