Governor defends Medicaid proposal that led to lawsuit

ROBERT KITTLE, News Channel 7
Published September 16, 2005

Gov. Mark Sanford is defending his proposed changes to the Medicaid program. That proposal led to a lawsuit filed against him this week.

A group of health care providers concerned about the governor's plan sued in Richland County, saying any change to the Medicaid program has to be approved by the state legislature.

"We consistently ask for and get waivers from the federal government and there's no controversy from the General Assembly. I think there are some politics -- we are in the political season -- that probably play into this," Sanford said.

The governor said he recently asked the federal government for waivers of trucking regulations after Hurricane Katrina to make it easier to transport gasoline into the state.

Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, is one of the lawyers who filed the suit against the governor. "What's great is that the APA (Administrative Procedures Act) allows for emergency regulations, such as Hurricane Katrina," he said.

"It also says that, if it's not an emergency, in the case of these Medicaid changes, it must go before the General Assembly."

About one-fourth of South Carolinians are on the Medicaid program at any time during a year, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Rutherford said those people are worried about the governor's plan.

"You've got a number of poor people, of aged people, of disabled people that are interested in what's going on with Medicaid and how we can best fix it. But to do it in dark of night is not the way to do it," he said.

He also said the plan would throw some people off of the program, leaving them with no health care.

"Absolutely wrong," Sanford said. "We wouldn't be offering this particular waiver if we thought that that was the case."

He said his plan changes Medicaid from unlimited health care to individual health accounts that recipients would use to buy private health insurance. Costs would be contained when insurance companies compete for that business, he said.

Medicaid spending now consumes 19 percent of the state budget. At the rate the program is growing, it will take up 29 percent of the state budget in just ten years, Sanford said.

"If we don't try some approach to curbing that rate of inflation, then my question to the opponents of this idea would be, what are you going to do? Are we going to cut education? Are we going to cut law enforcement? Are we going to cut infrastructure?"

Rep. Rutherford said he agrees that something has to be done to get a handle on Medicaid spending. His main argument is that the governor has to take his plan to state lawmakers first, before asking the federal government for a waiver.

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