Harvey Peeler

A S.C. Senate panel is considering three bills that would restructure the way the state provides health and environmental services, improving the level of those services and the accountability of the agencies that provide them.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler has set up the medical affairs subcommittee to consider the bills, which were sponsored by a variety of House and Senate members. Because the three bills deal with restructuring health agencies, it makes sense for the committee to consider the bills together and combine them into a single restructuring proposal.

The general direction of the proposals also makes sense for the state.

A Senate bill would split the Department of Health and Environmental Control into two agencies. It is too much for one board to handle both the state’s environmental concerns and all of its health matters. The group that decides where open-heart surgery centers can locate in the state shouldn’t also be responsible for determining pollution standards for the state’s freshwater resources.

Splitting the agency would allow environmental authorities to control one agency and concentrate on that mission without being distracted by public health matters. It would allow the same concentration for medical authorities.

The bill would also create new boards, appointed by the governor, to run the new agencies and create a secretary of health and environmental control to oversee them as part of the governor’s Cabinet.

One of the House bills would combine the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, the Department of Mental Health and the Continuum of Care for Emotionally Disturbed Children into a new Cabinet agency called the Department of Behavioral Health Services.

The other would move the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs into the governor’s Cabinet.

These are worthwhile moves. Just as splitting DHEC into two agencies makes sense so that the two halves can focus on their unique missions, combining three agencies that deal with mental health issues into one department would allow the creation of plans and approaches that address the state’s behavioral health needs.

And moving these agencies into the governor’s Cabinet is long overdue. Too many state agencies and departments are controlled by little known boards, insulated from accountability and prone to inefficiency and waste. Once these departments are included in the Cabinet, state residents would know the governor is accountable for providing these state services.

The General Assembly has waited too long to modernize state government and restore accountability to elected officials. South Carolinians can hope that Peeler’s efforts will lead to real progress on state government restructuring this year.

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