COLUMBIA, S.C.
A lawsuit against the state for how it treats clients of the Department of Mental Health has led to a renewed push from Gov. Henry McMaster to put the Department of Mental Health and Department of Disabilities and Special Needs under his purview as part of his cabinet.
During the last legislative session, a plan to consolidate six health-related agencies, Mental Health, Disability and Special Needs, the Department of Public Health, Department on Aging, Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, and the Department of Health and Human Services into one cabinet agency, failed to cross the finish line after a procedural move made by hard-line conservative House lawmakers.
McMaster this week called for a change to make Mental Health and Disability and Special Needs cabinet agencies that report to the governor’s office. Those two agencies report to a commission, who has members appointed by the governor. He added it’s difficult to make changes within the departments if they report to commissions.
“Those departments are not functioning and I think this lawsuit is probably a reflection of that, but we’ve been working to make them responsible, make them accountable, make them efficient,” McMaster told reporters this week. “Only way I see that we can do that is to make them agencies, so they’ll be directly responsible to me, and we can fix things easily and quickly.”
The federal lawsuit claimed South Carolina relies too heavily on community residential care facilities for people with severe mental illness because of the “state’s failure to make community-based services available to them, and more are regularly admitted to these settings.”
Federal officials say South Carolina is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by not helping people with severe mental illness live at home either alone or with family or friends. The lawsuit said living outside of community residential facility is possible with community-based services.
“The vast majority of South Carolinians with (severe mental illness) would not oppose transitioning to a more integrated setting if provided an opportunity to do so,” the lawsuit said.
McMaster’s office said the governor in his state of the state address will call on lawmakers to complete the health care restructuring in the state.
The other four agencies already are part of the governor’s cabinet.
Revisiting the health care restructuring is on the minds of lawmakers as they prepare for the 2025 and 2026 sessions.
The House Republican Caucus has said one of its priorities for is to “reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies and consolidate the state’s fragment public health system.”
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said he expected work on the health care consolidation bill, and state Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, would lead the effort in the upper chamber.
On the last day of session in May, lawmakers tried to pass the health care agency consolidation bill, but members of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus blocked passage as time ran out.
After McMaster posted on X his call to improve accountability and efficiency by making them cabinet agencies, Freedom Caucus Chairman state Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Berkeley, chimed in.
“I hope you’ll support my bill that I’ll refile this session to hold the agencies accountable without creating new government agencies,” Pace posted on X.
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Joseph Bustos is a state government and politics reporter at The State. He’s a Northwestern University graduate and previously worked in Illinois covering government and politics. He has won reporting awards in both Illinois and Missouri. He moved to South Carolina in November 2019 and won the Jim Davenport Award for Excellence in Government Reporting for his work in 2022.