WHAT WE DO
1. Protecting the health, safety & well-being of everyday folks in South Carolina through organizing, advocacy, policy research, analysis, education and litigation
The Federal Bureau of the Census tells us that 15.8% of South Carolina's 4.5 million people (about 707,000) were uninsured for all of 2008. Families USA's September 2007 study, Wrong Direction, found that 37.4% of South Carolinians, 1.37 million, were uninsured for one or more months in 2006-2007. The recession, with unemployment rates reaching 12.1% in June 2009, has further undermined health coverage.
SCFS is a respected voice for consumers at the General Assembly, in state agencies, among the press and in organizations and communities across the state. In the past year, SCFS played a critical role in:
• Passing payday lending legislation that strengthens protections from consumers;
• Passing mortgage lending legislation which increases protections for consumers contemplating Adjusted Rate Mortgages and requires all mortgage lenders to report extensive data on mortgage applications and loans in order to target racially-based steering of persons of color into higher priced loans;
• Moving legislation dedicated to health care into law by increasing the lowest-in-the nation cigarette tax rate of seven cents per pack to 57 cents a pack. The new revenues will go to fund state-run health care programs;
• Giving the State’s Office of Regulatory Staff authority to report on and challenge in court the effects of legislation deregulating the state’s largest telephone company;
• Publication of hospital-acquired infections data as a member of the Hospital Infections Advisory Committee of the S.C. Department of Health & Environmental Control and co-chair of the committee’s Data Subcommittee; and
• Moving the debate on state spending caps to the creation of a rainy day fund large enough to carry the state through economic fluctuations.
• Building a base of voting South Carolinians who are knowledgeable about and committed to working for health care reform at the local, state and federal levels.
In the coming year, we expect especially to work on predatory title lending, the rainy day fund, tax reform, and health care access and affordability, including raising the cigarette tax. SC Fair Share will advocate for the expansion of eligibility in the State Children's Health Insurance Program from 200% of the federal poverty level to 300%. It will call for an increase in eligibility in Medicaid's Low Income Families program to at least 100% of the federal poverty level, which would cover an additional 70,000 individuals. The program provides coverage to families with children under 18-19 years old who are also full-time students.
For nearly two decades SCFS has done direct policy work to support and strengthen access to affordable heath care for all South Carolinians. We have combined that direct work with extensive coalition building with advocates, providers, the business community and public officials to make access to affordable health a high public policy priority. SCFS organizes South Carolina citizens to participate in public policy debates. SCFS is core part of a coalition, South Carolina Health Care Voices (composed of SCFS, AARP-SC, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center and the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce), created to build the base of support for health care reform at both the state and federal levels. South Carolina Fair Share’s particular role is to recruit the local individuals and organizations who will be the base for this health care reform movement.
In Charleston, South Carolina Fair Share is currently organizing low-income consumers to challenge hospital policies on charity care, initially through secret shopper investigations and surveys of low-income consumers. Those consumers will take that information and challenge hospitals in those communities to do more to make affordable health care available to low-income residents.
SCFS provides respected policy analyses of critical issues. Through Policy Perspectives, 8 to 10 page research-based white papers, SCFS educates South Carolina citizens and policymakers on issues that are or should be of important public policy debates. In recent years, those Policy Perspectives have covered Rainy Day Funds, a state Earned Income Tax Credit, the racially-differential costs and benefits of our state Lottery, proposed changes to the tort system and economic development strategies in low-income communities.
2. Providing Tools for Citizens
SCFS believes that building a better future for South Carolina requires that we involve more South Carolinians in public processes and not just on the issues that SCFS works.
• When the South Carolina General Assembly is in session, SCFS publishes weekly (with interim e-mail updates) a Legislative Update which tracks most of the legislation in the General Assembly, explaining bills in plain English as they are filed, notifying folks of upcoming hearings and tracking legislative progress. These e-mailed Updates typically run in excess of 20 pages per week, but provide individual activists and organizational leaders with up-to-date information on what is happening at the State House.
• SCFS provides participatory trainings on skills for taking grassroots legislative action and for empowering communities.
• During the last two general elections, SCFS has published plain language explanations of the amendments to the State Constitution on the General Amendment ballot. Those explanations are used by individuals and organizations around the state to understand issues that are practically incomprehensible as presented to voters.
• SCFS staff routinely speak to other organizations and interest groups on the public policy lay of the land. These include annual presentations to the S.C. Conference of Branches of the NAACP at its Annual Convention and its Legislative Day, Sigma Delta Theta’s annual Legislative Day and the SC Association of Nonprofit Organizations.
• SCFS will work closely with the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce to inform its members of the health care reform work being undertaken at the state and federal levels, to discuss their health care needs and policy proposals, and to develop spokespersons among small business owners.
3. Strengthening Organizations
Building a better future for South Carolina requires that a strong nonprofit sector flourish in the state.
• The SCFS Education Fund publishes NonProfits 101: A Guide for Staff and Board Members of New and Smaller Charitable [501(c)(3)] Nonprofits (3rd Ed., October 2009). This guide covers: 1) The Board, 2) Accountability & Transparency, 3) Compliance – Staying Out of Trouble; and Getting Started (Incorporation, Bylaws and Applying for 501(c)(3) Status).
• SCFS staff play a lead role in training board and staff of South Carolina nonprofits on accountability and ethics.
