The S.C. Budget and Control Board, as anticipated, last week raised premiums on state and local government workers enrolled in the state health care plan, while also reducing benefits. We feel their pain but welcome them to the real world of health care delivery in which private-sector folks have been living for some time.

Even though they're now picking up 28 percent of the cost of their own health care, and that of dependents, they're still better off than many S.C. residents, who are paying an even bigger share, or else have no health benefits.

They're mad at board members Gov. Mark Sanford, Treasurer Grady Patterson, Rep. Bobby Harrell and Sen. Hugh Leatherman, who voted for this change in the plan (with Comptroller Richard Eckstrom voting no). But the real culprit is greater consumption of prescriptions and medical procedures. The money to pay for these choices has to come from somewhere, and the board majority rightly decided it shouldn't be the taxpayers.