Over the last few years, the conversation surrounding healthcare in South Carolina has mostly centered around a debate over coverage, from Medicaid expansion to the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, this has sidelined more substantive conversations about how to provide true care—not just insurance coverage—to South Carolinians who lack access, quality, and control over their healthcare decisions.

To help change that conversation, Palmetto Promise Institute, along with several lawmakers, released its 2020 Healthcare Freedom Agenda for South Carolina. Supporting Palmetto Promise at a news conference to release the report were several South Carolina lawmakers, in addition to physicians from across the state.

Reforms include protecting direct primary care, repealing certificate-of-need regulations, empowering patients with the right to shop for healthcare services, and protecting healthcare sharing ministries. Legislation was introduced on all four pillars of the Healthcare Freedom Agenda in January, the first week of the 2020 legislative session. Palmetto believes that these reforms will directly address the growing problems with our healthcare system, providing greater access to quality care for all South Carolinians, not just expensive insurance coverage for some.