Gov. Mark Sanford was right to veto a bill that would allow a Lexington County hospital to circumvent the state's certificate of need program. If there are shortcomings in that program, they should be addressed as a policy matter, not by a legislative end run around the regulations.

Lexington County legislators were able to amend an administrative law reform bill to allow the hospital to have an open-heart surgery unit, despite the fact that state regulators denied the request. There are two similar surgery programs in neighboring Richland County.

The governor's position was summed up by his spokesman: "You either have a certificate of need process or you don't have one. But what you absolutely cannot have is a certificate of need process that is then circumvented by the legislative process."

The certificate of need program is designed to restrain medical costs by prohibiting costly duplicative programs and unwarranted hospital construction. Critics say South Carolina's program is unduly restrictive and unnecessarily limits competition.

If that's the case, then the Legislature has the option to make needed changes. But it shouldn't make a mockery of the process by approving a hospital program that has been rejected under the existing rules. The Legislature should uphold the veto.