Posted on Tue, Oct. 24, 2006

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Health care costs spur voter anxiety

By RODDIE A. BURRIS

rburris@thestate.com

On the surface, 82-year-old Roland Thomas of Columbia has what might be one of the most enviable health care testimonies of recent times:

“I haven’t had to spend one red cent on medical care over the years,” the World War II Army veteran said. “I know it’s been a problem for many, but not for me.”

With ever-rising prices for medicine, yearly increases in premiums for health insurance and pressure from Congress and state governments to limit spending, affordable, quality health care is a problem for many South Carolinians.

So far, however, it has been a nonissue in the governor’s race. Voters say neither Republican Gov. Mark Sanford nor his Democratic challenger, Sen. Tommy Moore, have addressed the issue.

“I think they (both) are just letting this slide by the voters,” said Sandra Johnson of North Charleston. “I haven’t heard it addressed, not once.”

Johnson, the mother of a 30-year-old mentally retarded woman, said she wants Sanford and Moore to fight for greater access for everybody to the health care system, whether they are insured or not.

Universal health care generally is a national issue, but Johnson, a Democrat, said the issue is too important for governors to ignore.

Johnson said her daughter, Tamika, has been on a waiting list for state-funded residential care for nine years. That’s because the few new beds that open each year go to patients the state deems to be more critical.

That leads Johnson to the one reason she said she is leaning toward voting for Sanford in November: “He has the willingness to change things, to bring in new ideas, new policies and get out of this old way of doing things.”

Thomas, who served in the military for 37 years, said he is much less confident about either candidate and has not decided on whom to support next month.

He said insurance is his biggest concern. “I worry about all the young people, young men in particular, you see running around in the street with absolutely no place to go for health care. And you know there are some even younger ones after them.”