Candace Carrol is the South Carolina State Director for Americans for Prosperity.
Federal Newswire
Tell us about “Certificate of Need” reform.
Candace Carrol
In layman's terms, if a Marriott wanted to build across the street or even in the same general geographic area as a Hilton, Hilton could say, “nope, we've got this area covered.”
We are seeing that a lot in the healthcare industry here in South Carolina. I know it happens across the country as well. Existing providers essentially block out new providers from coming into their communities. So we’re talking [about] MRI machines, x-ray machines.. that were all being blocked out by current providers.
Federal Newswire
How does this impact competition and more affordable access to care?
Candace Carrol
If you only have one provider in a space, it can set prices to what they want to charge. That plays a role when we talk about Certificate of Need.
In South Carolina, we have 46 counties. Eight of those counties don't have access to an OBGYN because there's one that was boxing out others. So when we talk about maternal mortality rates in South Carolina–which are through the roof–we don't provide enough access to care in those areas. It's a real problem.
Federal Newswire
Is the recent South Carolina bill to fix this a model for other states?
Candace Carrol
One-thousand percent. Our elected officials were adamant about bringing all of the players to the table to have conversations early on. For 15 years, South Carolina fought to try to get rid of our Certificate of Need program.
We saw the momentum really start to build post-COVID. That kind of catapulted this discussion as we came into our legislative session. You saw leadership both in the House and the Senate, bring together individuals and organizations like Americans for Prosperity, like our hospital association, like the Medical Association, and the doctors.
Federal Newswire
Are there other businesses or industry sectors that you were able to tap into to help push this along?
Candace Carrol
Yeah. Our small business association, the South Carolina Mom and Pop Alliance, came alongside us in this one because they wanted to see greater access to care across the state..
Think about the insurance premiums. If there's just one provider in the area and you are a health care insurance provider, the incumbent provider can charge whatever they want, and send it to you to decide whether you're going to approve it as an insurance provider. If there [are] multiple health care opportunities for people in your community, the premium is going to really decrease.
We had our insurance provider in South Carolina, Blue Cross Blue Shield…come alongside us in this fight because it allowed for them to expand access to healthcare, but [also] to drop the price of health care significantly.
Federal Newswire
What are you doing to export your success?
Candace Carrol
Americans for Prosperity is working on this across the country. We also have a lot of other state chapters that are working on this–Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi. [They’re saying], wait a minute, South Carolina got this done and we want to be next because that neighbor competition is good for a lot of folks.
All of the folks who are part of the fight here in South Carolina are willing to have conversations with their counterparts in other states. So if you know someone here in South Carolina, reach out. We are all willing to have these conversations. We want to see other states really put patients back in the driver's seat.
