Thursday morning, debate will continue on a state cigarette tax hike, as the Senate Finance Committee wrestles over how the money should be spent. At issue: an amendment to set up a tax credit for businesses who don’t cover employees–plus offer insurance to people at highest risk of going without insurance.
The amendment is sponsored by Orangeburg Democrat John Matthews.
Clarendon’s John Land prefers use the almost $150 million in cigarette tax revenue to work within the existing programs, drawing down another $450 million.
Land insists, “We could increase our eligibility standards for the existing programs at no additional administrative expense. The mechanism and the machinery is all out there, ready to take these dollars. We can cover people who have neer ever been covered in South Carolina before with a good policy of insurance. Our hospitals, our doctors could be paid more. Our druggists could be paid more. We could have one of the best systems anywhere in the country.” [click to continue…]
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