Voters fear rushing into waste, uncertainty and cost. A statewide survey of South Carolina voters commissioned by Palmetto Policy Forum and conducted by Magellan Strategies reveals a divided and doubtful electorate on the issue of expanding Medicaid in South Carolina to include able-bodied adults up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. The rush to expand Medicaid under provisions of The Affordable Care Act in the face of waste, fraud and abuse is at the top of voter worries. Key survey findings include...

By Jim Epstein, ReasonTV “Most physicians can’t afford to accept Medicaid” patients, says Dr. Alieta Eck, a primary-care physician based in Piscataway, New Jersey. “If you’re getting paid about $17 per visit, it won’t be long before you can’t pay your staff or pay your rent.” Medicaid is the nation’s health care system for the

On a share-by-share basis, some donor states such as Texas, Florida, and South Carolina get less than an 85 percent share of the highway money they pay in [to the Federal Highway Trust Fund] while New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts get more than 100 percent. As bad as this disparity is, the allocation of federal transit spending is even more inequitable. Many highway donor states are also transit donor states, receiving much less for transit projects than they paid into the transit account, while many of the highway done states are also transit donees…

The answer, based on the evidence garnered from Florida’s transformative education reforms is a resounding “Yes!” Demographics are not destiny. No one would deny that there are critical factors of home life – parental education, family structure, poor nutrition and other variables that directly impact the educational readiness of children who enter school. But far

Education transformation is a topic we are incredibly passionate about. In fact, in 2012, The Palmetto Fort Foundation (the Forum’s precursor) and U.S. Senator Jim DeMint’s office teamed up to host the “Empower Education Reform Summit.” This event, which was keynoted by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, attracted elected, education, business and community leaders –

By Tara Servatius Charleston City Paper They pack their families like lemmings into 1,400 square-foot houses situated on postage stamps in Mt. Pleasant and tell themselves they are doing it for their kids’ education. They pay $150 a month for flood insurance on those homes to attend the highest scoring schools in the region. Other

new report shows that by 2014, under the Affordable Care Act, unsubsidized individual premiums in South Carolina will skyrocket by 61%! Thank you @NikkiHaley and South Carolina legislators who are standing strong for state flexibility and innovation by fighting against the legislation’s full implementation.

The State OpEd by Jim DeMint ‘For every problem,” H.L. Mencken wrote, “there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong.” Enter Obamacare and one of the main ways that it purports to reduce the number of uninsured: putting more people on Medicaid. S.C. legislators are being pressured to do just that. The House

South Carolina Radio Network Interview with Superintendent of Education Mick Zais South Carolina’s education superintendent says he wants this state to be more like Florida when it comes to education. During an interview on Charleston affiliate WTMA, Superintendent Mick Zais referenced a recent study by the new South Carolina conservative think tank Palmetto Policy Forum,

Columbia, SC – Today, the newly formed Palmetto Promise Institute announced the release of its inaugural policy paper, Transformation: What South Carolina Can Learn from Florida’s K-12 Reforms. In 1998, South Carolina students led Florida students in performance on a number of national tests, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as “The