I suspect that this law, is a law is to preempt any consequences to the anticipated overturning of the Roe vs Wade concerning abortions. Just read the test of the bill that is RED below… What happens if a health insurance company or a major healthcare corporation that declares that ALL CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ARE ADDICTING… and they are not going to pay, prescribe or fill any controlled medication- because it is UNETHICAL to possibly cause someone to become addicted to these medications that the DEA has declared – for some 50 yrs – that they are DANGEROUSLY ADDICTING. That is nothing short of a full blown bureaucratic creep.
New law lets South Carolina providers deny care that conflicts with personal beliefs
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act into law June 17, allowing healthcare institutions, medical practitioners and health insurers to deny non-emergent care that conflicts with their “religious, moral or ethical beliefs.”
“As the right of conscience is fundamental, no medical practitioner, healthcare institutions and healthcare payers should be compelled to participate in or pay for any medical procedure or prescribe or pay for any medication to which the practitioner or entity objects on the basis of conscience, whether such conscience is informed by religious, moral or ethical beliefs or principles,” the act states. “It is the purpose of this chapter to protect medical practitioners, healthcare institutions and healthcare payers from discrimination, punishment or retaliation as a result of any instance of conscientious medical objection.”
Coverage under the law is sweeping. “Healthcare institution” covers any public or private hospital, clinic, physician group, ambulatory surgical center, private physician office, pharmacy, nursing home, medical school, nursing school or any entity “in which healthcare services are performed on behalf of any person.” By “healthcare payer,” the law covers insurers, employers or any entity that pays for a patient’s healthcare in part or in full. By “medical practitioner,” the law covers anyone asked to participate in any healthcare service.
The act took effect upon the governor’s signing. South Carolina is the latest state to protect healthcare providers’ “right of conscience.” Arkansas enacted a similar proposal in March 2021.
South Carolina Senator Larry Grooms championed the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act. Supporters of the law include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston; opponents include the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Human Rights Campaign.
The law can be found in full here.
Filed under: General Problems
AGAIN,,I REMEMBER READING THIS 1,,,THINKING OMG,,THE DISCRIMNATION IS GOING TO BE RAMPID,,THIS IS SETTING OUR SOCIETY BACKWARDS 100 YEARS,,,ITS TERRIBLE,,AS ALL OF US WHO ARE MEDICALLY ILL KNOW ALLL TO WELL WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE DENIED,DISCREDITED OR LITERALLY TORTURED TO DEATH,,OVER SOMEONE PERSONAL OPINION,,UIE DISCRIMNATION,,,,HELL,,,JUST RECENTLY I REALIZED VIA DISCRIMNATION WITH-IN OUR OWN CHRONIC PAIN COMMUNITY,,,THEE UPPER CRUST OF THEE PAIN COMMUNITY DO NOT LIKE PAIN PATIENT GOING BLIND,,SHOWING PURE DISCRIMNATION,,,,,,BUT I DIGRESS,,,AGAIN WE ARE GOING BACKWARDS,,,MARYW
I suspect you’re right about the “rationale” behind pushing such a thing through. Unfortunately, I don’t see any possible way that this will not create utter chaos in SC’s health care systems. This is insanity and the reason that I stand firm in my belief that we never know what kind of atrocity to expect next. Regardless of how one feels about abortion, this will inevitably be applied to anything and everything under the sun so it should have never seen the support that it apparently had. It’s utterly and totally reckless to write something like this into law. They’ve essentially negated filing of complaints against a provider for non-treatment or maltreatment or even to file a medical negligence claim in court, seeing as how all the provider will have to do is state that the treatment (or lack thereof) violated one of their personal belief systems. I feel for anyone that lives in SC but especially those who live in pain. It’s been hard enough to eke out an existence in the hostile environment of health care without it becoming officially legal to deny care, all on an individual physician’s beliefs. This is an huge setback for anyone living in that state who hoped to see brighter days in the future in the world of pain management. It’s a huge setback in medical care overall. They’ve gifted providers the ability to act with near total impunity and that is terrifying. It’s all I can do to hope that my state does not follow suit, as our state government is prone to do when they see another state doing something that they like. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if many more states followed suit..I don’t know if I’ve ever seen better scarcely debatable evidence for those who are in the business of law not trying to meddle in the practice of medicine. They probably have little idea of what they’ve just done. I guess all that they probably know for sure is that they believe themselves to have been superiorly smart and ahead of the game. When all they’ve done in reality is sign up the people of SC for a sharp decline in overall health, with it inevitably contributing to or outright causing deaths in too many cases, and made it all perfectly legal to do so. What a world to live in and a time to be alive!
[…] New law lets South Carolina providers deny care that conflicts with personal beliefs […]
It seems there could be many negative possibilities with such a law. As for PMP’s this could be further disaaster for us!. RULE OF LAW has to the deciding factor over emotion with peoples’ lives.