Citing school shooting, Haley calls for more mental health spending in state budget

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Gov. Nikki Haley proposed a $6.3 billion budget on Thursday that struggles to keep up with the rising cost of health care while funneling more money into mental health services in light of the school shooting Newtown, Connecticut.

Haley?s budget includes an $11.3 million increase for the Department of Mental Health. Last year, Haley proposed a $16.3 million increase for the department, with nearly half of that money going to the state?s overcrowded Sexual Violent Treatment program.

Haley?s proposed increase this year is part of her ?hope and prayer that what happened in Connecticut is that those lives are not taken in vain but that this country realizes that we have got to have a conversation about mental health.?

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?Connecticut has one of strongest gun control measures in the country. But look at their mental health system ... That?s what we all need to be talking about, the mental health side of things. Not necessarily guns,? Haley said. ?You know, anybody can get a gun. Anybody can get a gun. And when bad people get guns they are going to do what they want to do. No amount of gun control can stop someone from getting a gun when they want to get it. What we can do is control mental health in a way that we treat people that don?t know how to treat themselves.?

Haley declined to comment on a proposed bill that would allow S.C. teachers with concealed weapons permits to carry guns on school grounds.

Going into the 2013-14 budget cycle, many budget analysts predicted the largest increase would go to the state?s Medicaid program, the joint federal and state health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Tony Keck, the state?s Medicaid director, asked for $193 million more in state general fund money

But Haley?s proposal gives Keck an extra $74.8 million. The largest increase -- $78.4 million -- went to the employee health insurance program as it struggles to keep up with rising health care costs.

The largest budget increase was not to expand the state?s Medicaid program -- as many had expected -- but to keep up with the rising costs of health insurance for state workers. Haley gave an extra $78.4 million to pay for employee health insurance while giving $74.4 million to the state Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the state?s Medicaid program.

Haley said the state will have to find a way to control the rising costs of health insurance by preventing people from coming to Medicaid. She proposed a $1 million increase to the state Office on Aging, who will use the money to help keep seniors out of nursing homes -- a tremendously expensive cost under Medicaid.

?We?ve got to keep on doing what it takes to get the most health for help for the least amount of money. That is getting very creative,? she said.

Haley?s other budget proposals include:

??A 3 percent raise for correction officers at the state?s maximum security prisons

??An extra $8.5 million to help the Department of Juvenile Justice make up for lost federal money

??25 new agents at the Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole

??A $26 million income tax cut that would be paid for with new money Haley expects to be added to the budget by the Spring.

Read Gov. Haley?s budget proposal below

Source: http://www.thestate.com/2012/12/20/2563451/health-insurance-mental-health.html

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