The Covering Carolina Collaborative last week unveiled a $230 million plan to cover 160,000 of the state's approximately 700,000 uninsured residents, the Charleston Post and Courier reports. The collaborative's plan would:

Extend Medicaid coverage to parents whose income is below 100% of the federal poverty level and to children in families whose income is between 200% and 250% of the poverty level;

Provide tax credits to individuals and small businesses to help people with incomes between 100% and 250% of the poverty level purchase coverage; and

Create a high-risk pool for low-income residents who have pre-existing medical conditions and cannot obtain other coverage.
The collaborative has proposed funding the initiative with a cigarette tax increase that already has passed the state House and is being considered by a Senate panel. Under the legislation being considered by state lawmakers, the cigarette tax would increase by 30 cents per pack, but the coalition's proposal, which would cost an estimated $230 million, would require a cigarette tax increase of at least 90 cents per pack, according to the Post and Courier.

State Rep. Chip Limehouse (R), a member of the state House Ways and Means Committee, said, "I'm not wholly confident there's support for a greater (tax) increase," adding that the state instead should use cigarette tax revenue to fund Medicaid, which receives a federal match of $3 to $1, and nursing programs. Lynn Bailey, a health care consultant who is affiliated with South Carolinians for Universal Health Care, said the plan overlooks the middle class and would cover a small portion of the state's uninsured residents. She said, "We can't leave 600,000 in South Carolina without insurance and ever think we can control health care costs."

The collaborative includes the South Carolina Hospital Association, South Carolina Medical Association, South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina Alliance of Health Plans (Coley, Charleston Post and Courier, 1/25).

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