CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace said that, if elected governor of South Carolina, she would require hospitals statewide to follow healthy food standards, aligning herself with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to overhaul hospital food.
Mace's campaign on Tuesday outlined a plan to tie hospital food standards to Medicaid provider agreements. If enacted, hospitals that bill Medicaid would be required to meet nutrition standards to collect reimbursements.
"You don't heal the sick with Jell-O and high fructose corn syrup soda," said Rep. Mace. "Sometimes the most powerful tool in medicine is real food. And as Governor of South Carolina, I'm not going to wait for Washington to act - I'm going to use every lever available to make sure hospitals that take Medicaid dollars are nourishing South Carolina's patients with the healthiest food available."
Also included in Mace's plan is a push to reform reimbursement rates to reward healthy outcomes, incentivizing hospitals to adopt "evidence-based" nutrition standards and penalize those that serve "ultra-processed food linked to longer recovery times."
The power Mace points to for this plan is the authority the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has over the state's Medicaid program. If elected, she also plans to direct Managed Care Organizations to enforce nutrition standards.
"These aren't radical ideas - they're common sense," Mace said. "We already tell hospitals what procedures they can bill for. We can tell them what they can serve. And if a hospital wants to sue the State of South Carolina for the right to keep feeding sick patients food that's making them more sick - let them try."
Mace is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Kennedy, who, in Florida, rolled out a health initiative regarding hospital food. The Health and Human Services secretary has argued that providing healthy food to patients can aid healing and reduce readmissions.
"We shouldn't be giving people who are sick Jell-O, Cheerios, rubber chicken and sugary drinks," Kennedy said, as reported by Politico. "We have the best doctors. We have the finest hospitals in the world, but for some reason, for many years, they haven't recognized the most important tool of medicine today is good food."
Kennedy's plan also looks to utilize the control that Medicare and Medicaid services can exert over hospitals.
Mace also claimed, if elected, she would explore partnerships between South Carolina farmers and hospital food programs. She remains one of seven Republican candidates vying for the party nomination. Others in the field include Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Attorney General Alan Wilson, wealthy Isle of Palms resident and seawall advocate Rom Reddy, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, state Sen. Joshua Kimbrell, and Jacqueline Hicks DuBose.