SC budget: Hospital regulation program loses $1.7M

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina House has agreed with Gov. Nikki Haley to remove more than $1.7 million from a program that state health officials use to regulate the building of hospitals and medical facilities and buying expensive equipment.

House members voted 56-65 on Wednesday to sustain the governor’s veto of money from the Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Certificate of Need program. A two-thirds vote was needed to override.

Haley’s spokesman says the governor’s intention is to get rid of the program. A DHEC spokesman did not immediately return a message about the program’s future.

Little Mountain Democratic Rep. Walt McLeod says ending the program will cause anarchy in the state’s health care system.

The House overrode 45 of the first 71 vetoes it considered. Haley vetoed 81 items.