DeMint rips Obama from Senate floor

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint calls President Obama's health care plan radical and his chief economic policy a failure in an exchange of words between the politicians over the president's efforts to get a health care reform bill through Congress.

President Barack Obama referenced DeMint's comments -- though he did not call him by name -- in a speech Monday in which DeMint said Congress' rejection of health care reform would be Obamas' "Waterloo."

This is DeMint's response.

24-hour abortion wait dies in Senate

The abortion issue is dead in the 2009 General Assembly, its death blow coming at the hands of the state senator who days ago told the Senate that issue is the only reason he is an elected official.

Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, again threw the Senate in a lurch  Thursday, when he asked for the Senate's consent to leave the day's main business - dispatching of Gov. Mark Sanford's vetoes - to resume consideration of a House-passed bill that requires a woman to wait 24 hours after an ultrasound is performed before proceeding with an abortion.

Former DDSN employee gets OK for commission seat

A Senate panel has approved the nomination of a Department of Disabilities and Special Needs commissioner held up last week.

Lawmakers raised questions about Deborah McPherson's nomination last week, after receiving e-mails and phone calls that questioned her  qualifications and impartiality.

McPherson is a former DDSN employee, and some Senators believed she might have "an ax to grind" with the agency.

Age of consent bill passes Senate

The S.C. Senate passed a bill that would strike from the state’s constitution a ban on unmarried females 14 and under consenting to sex. State law has set the age of consent at 16 for both sexes. The ban is an effort to make the constitution mirror state law. 

House votes to keep hospice care

The S.C. House has approved a bill that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to reinstate hospice care scheduled to be eliminated Feb 1.

Hospice care was among a list of services the agency planned on eliminating as part of it's share of $1 billion in state budget cuts since July.

Rep. Rex Rice, R-Pickens, argued lawmakers should allow the agency to reduce what doctors and hospitals are paid for services.

Cutting payments, said Rep. Tracy Edge, R-Horry, could force rural hospitals to close or raise costs on insured patients. Advocates of restoring the funding said it would cost more to treat dying patients 
in a hospital than in a hospice.

Edge did not expect the Senate would approve the bill, H.3281, before the cuts took effect.

Senate overrides Sanford on HIV-school bill

The Senate voted to overturn Gov. Mark Sanford veto of a bill that would ends the practice of state health regulators informing schools when they have an HIV-positive student.

Supporters of a bill to end the reporting practice argued the requirement discouraged children from being tested. But Sanford said school nurses and administrators should know if a student is HIV positive.

House rejects veto of children's health insurance

The House has voted to override a Gov. Mark Sanford veto of $21.3 million that will pay for health insurance for poor children.

The Senate must now vote to override the governor for the funding to stand.

Student HIV/AIDS bill passes the House

School nurses must notify the Department of Health and Environmental Control when any K-12 student gets into a fight, clashes with another student on the sports field or has any other contact with another person's blood.

Then, DHEC will let the nurse know if the student in question has HIV/AIDS, hepatitis or any other blood-borne illness and will advise what type of medical treatment is needed.

That's according to a compromised version of a senate bill the House approved Wednesday in a 97 to 0 vote. The bill eliminates the current state requirement that a school district superintendent and school nurse be given the name of any student in their district/at their school who tests positive for HIV/AIDS at any of the state's medical clinics or private doctor's offices.

HIV/AIDS treatments to get $2.4 million

Lawmakers have approved $2.4 million toward the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance program that helps provides lifesaving medicines for people with HIV who have low income and little or no prescription drug insurance coverage. The money will go toward helping some of the estimated 800 South Carolinians a year diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

HIV disclosure bill will be taken up May 7

The House will take up a bill May 7 that would eliminate the requirement that school superintendents and nurses be notified if a student has HIV/AIDS. Tuesday, the House adjourned debate until May.

Advocates of the bill say the disclosure is stigmatizing and violates privacy rights.  Others argue disclosing who is HIV-positive is needed to protect students from being infected.