COLUMBIA, S.C. — In response to findings by the Boston Consulting Group, Republican Senator Tom Davis of Beaufort is spearheading a comprehensive bill aimed at reshaping South Carolina's health and human services agency structure, which the study deemed the most fragmented in the country.
"The amount of constituents going to get public health services and having to go to one branch or another is quite frankly embarrassing. And it's incumbent upon us to fix it," said Senator Davis on Jan. 31.
The proposed bill seeks to address these challenges by consolidating six separate state agencies into a unified entity known as the Executive Office of Health and Policy.
The office would include the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, Disabilities and Special Needs, Health and Human Services, Mental Health and Aging, and the newly proposed Department of Public Health.
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Additionally, the restructuring bill aims to create a distinct Department of Environmental Control, currently part of the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).
Senator Harvey Peeler from Cherokee County emphasized the need for modernization.
"We are operating in a 1960's model. This is finally bringing our health services into the 21st century," he said.
A key feature of the proposal is the appointment of a director of Public Health by the governor, subject to Senate confirmation.
Governor Henry McMaster supports the measure.
"Our mental health system is just not functioning. Some have said it's the worst in the country," McMaster said. "It was designed over time and different pieces and may have worked at one time, but now, the problems are so strong."
The Senate Medical Affairs Committee gave its approval on Jan. 31, setting lawmakers on a tight deadline to finalize the bill before the end of the session.
A similar bill is pending in the State House of Representatives.
