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by ED SUTTON
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Every public institution deserves scrutiny, including the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). But scrutiny worthy of the Senate has to begin with common facts. Senator Wes Climer’s recent broadside against MUSC did not. He lumped together university appropriations, hospital financing, total project costs, and transaction values into one frightening number and then labeled all of it “taxpayer money.”
That is not oversight. It is a false picture.
The clearest example is Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Senator Climer told readers that taxpayers gave $389 million for that hospital. The budget records I reviewed over several years show roughly $35 million in state support, with the rest of the project covered through private donations and bonding capacity. In other words, he appears to have taken a number close to the total project cost and repackaged it as a taxpayer appropriation. That is not close. Senator Climer was off by roughly $354 million. That is not a rounding error. That is not a minor misstatement. That is a completely false picture.
I will say, respectfully, that I am particularly perplexed by that attack. Senator Climer speaks often about the sanctity of life. Yet he chose to take direct aim at a children’s hospital using numbers that do not hold up. South Carolina has a clear public reason for supporting pediatric infrastructure at MUSC. The system is home to the state’s only pediatric burn referral center, and the South Carolina Burn Center at MUSC is the state’s only comprehensive burn center. That is what a public mission looks like. It is care the private market did not provide on its own, and it is care South Carolina families cannot afford to lose.
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The same inflation runs through the rest of his list. MUSC board minutes show that Nexton and Indian Land were approved as financings of up to $395 million and $310 million, not taxpayer appropriations. The Palmetto Primary Care transaction was a $111 million Medical University Hospital Authority (MUHA) purchase price, not a state budget line item. He also claimed the state paid $1.115 billion for a new cancer hospital. There is an obvious problem with that statement. The hospital does not even exist yet, and no state funds have gone to that project so far, although some may be approved in the 2026-27 budget. When it is built, MUSC has said the project will be paired with major philanthropy. Again and again, Senator Climer took financings, total project costs, and transaction values and turned them into one talking point called “taxpayer money.”
Fuzzy arithmetic is not policy. Theater is not oversight.
That false picture mattered because it became the basis for his attempt to use the budget to “study” carving up MUSC. But South Carolina law does not treat MUSC as some careless blur between missions. It recognizes distinct functions while intentionally linking clinical care and medical education. State law requires the authority to provide the services necessary for the training and education of health professionals and to continue operating the hospital both as a health care provider for South Carolinians and as the clinical site for MUSC’s education and training programs. MUSC provides care in all 46 counties, operates more than 950 care locations, and supports 1,048 residents and fellows.
This is not a Charleston vanity project. It is a statewide academic health system built by design.
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RELATED | WES CLIMER: STOP FORCING TAXPAYERS TO PAY TWICE FOR THE SAME HEALTHCARE
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Every public entity deserves scrutiny. MUSC deserves scrutiny. But scrutiny has to start from common facts. On the Senate floor, when his numbers were challenged, Senator Climer brushed aside the distinction between MUSC’s university side and hospital side as though it had little practical significance. That is precisely the problem. Law, finance, bonds, and appropriations are not optional details. In public budgeting, the details matter because the facts matter.
Most of us speak in plain English because that is how most South Carolinians speak. Big words do not rescue bad math. Dressing up false figures in polished rhetoric does not make it statesmanship. It just makes it easier to hide the gimmick. And when Senator Carlisle Kennedy rose to speak about MUSC helping save his son’s life, and to warn that private equity is the greater long-term threat in health care, Senator Climer did not respond with humility or seriousness. He responded with a cheap insult, comparing conservative Senator Kennedy to Bernie Sanders.
When someone cannot win on the strength of the facts, they often reach for ridicule. Senator Climer may want to sharpen his pencil before he gets to Washington D.C. South Carolina deserves a more careful accounting than the one he brought to MUSC. His effort to mess with MUSC did not fail because scrutiny is unwelcome. It failed because the facts did not survive scrutiny.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Ed Sutton is a small business owner, decorated veteran and devoted Lowcountry family man. As the State Senator for District 20, he brings a deep commitment to public service, principled leadership, and a tireless work ethic to every challenge he takes on.
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