South Carolina Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in South Carolina?

South Carolina improved by one spot and ranked 46th in the 2012 edition of America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• South Carolina has one of the country's lowest binge drinking rates.
• The high school graduation rate increased by 3.8 percentage points from 2011 to 2012. However, the overall rate remains low at 66.0 percent.

The bad news:

• South Carolina has the country's second-highest rate of diabetes; 12.1 percent of adults – 435,000 people have been diagnosed with the condition.
• Nearly 20 percent of people in the state do not have health insurance.

Rhode Island's best and worst category rankings:

• Binge Drinking – 8th
• Preventable Hospitalizations – 24th
• High School Graduation Rate – 47th
• Low Birth Weight – 47th
• Children in Poverty – 48th
• Diabetes – 49th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on South Carolina.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key South Carolina health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts South Carolina here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for South Carolina, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

Does South Carolina have a health insurance high risk pool?

South Carolina Health Insurance Pool
Toll-free Phone 1-800-868-2500, ext. 42757, or 1-803-788-0500, ext. 42757 

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, South Carolina started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about South Carolina's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

Non-profit sources of health insurance information for South Carolina

• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's mission is to provide simplified public and private health insurance eligibility information in order to help more people access coverage. Here is its guide on how to find health insurance in South Carolina.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking the progress of health insurance reform in each state. Its page for South Carolina can be found here.
• The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers. Search for South Carolina health insurance plan report cards.

South Carolina state government health insurance resources

Health care reform —  A page by the South Carolina Department of Insurance on national health care reform.

South Carolina Department of Insurance —  Consumer health insurance information from the state Department of Insurance.

Partners for Health Insurance (PHC) —  South Carolina’s program to provide Medicare coverage to children 18 and under who live in families with income at or below 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services —  Manages the state’s Medicaid program to provide heath care coverage for those who cannot afford it.

How did South Carolina officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (5)

• Jeff Duncan
• Trey Gowdy

• Mick Mulvaney
• Tim Scott

• Addison Wilson

Our
Pick

No (1)

• James Clyburn