Legislature
Hewitt files bill to combine six state health care agencies
State Rep. Lee Hewitt tried to reassure members of the Georgetown County Republican Club last spring that the breakup of the Department of Health and Environmental Control made sense.
“We have not created a health czar,” he said.
Some people weren’t convinced. One pointed to a claim that Anthony Fauci was coming to take charge of the new health care agency.
Another asked how the new agency would deal with quarantines.
“That is false information that is being spread around,” Hewitt said. “They’re not trying to govern. They’re trying to score political points.”
While DHEC was split into the Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Public Health, a bill to combine five other agencies with Public Health was killed on a procedural vote by a House member from the Upstate who said it would create a “health czar.”
Hewitt has filed a bill that will let the legislature try again.
“This legislation would eliminate health care fragmentation, gain cost efficiency, and enhance care quality and accessibility,” Hewitt said in announcing the bill.
Health care represents 50 to 60 percent of the state budget.
“That’s my responsibility now,” said Hewitt, who was named chairman of the health subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.
His bill would bring the Departments of Public Health, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, Disabilities and Special Needs, Health and Human Services, Mental Health and Aging together into the Executive Office of Health Policy.
The secretary of Health and Policy would be a cabinet level office, appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of a majority vote in both the Senate and House. The secretary can be removed from office by the governor.
“This bill rests the authority to enforce emergencies solely with the governor,” Hewitt said. “Only the governor can order law enforcement agencies or the National Guard to assist the department in enforcing public health emergency measures, not the secretary.”
Hewitt, a Murrells Inlet Republican, served on the DHEC board during an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa in 2014 that threatened to spread beyond the continent.
Along with his subcommittee role, Hewitt was named chief majority whip of the GOP caucus.
In that role, he said, he will be responsible for “taking the temperature” of party members on pending legislation, not twisting arms.
“You want people to vote how they need to vote,” Hewitt said, while at the time figuring out “are the votes there for the bill to pass.”
