On Thursday, March 2, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) released a statement on Medicaid expansion in the state, which it called “a momentous agreement that will directly improve the health and well-being of 600,000 North Carolinians.”
The statement came just hours after North Carolina legislators in the General Assembly reached a decision to approve Medicaid expansion after debating the matter for years.
The official vote will be taken later in March however both Speaker of the state House Rep. Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and Speaker Pro Tem of the state Senate Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) support this Medicaid expansion effort. Since Republicans control the state House and Senate that almost certainly assures its passage.
North Carolina has been one of about a dozen states that had yet to adopt Medicaid expansion since it became an option years ago.
The statement from the NCDHHS reads: “We applaud the efforts by the General Assembly to move this forward. Medicaid expansion will be transformative for access to health care in rural areas, for better mental health and for veterans, working adults and their families” and it went on to call the expansion “life changing” for those who will now be covered but weren’t before.
NCDHHS officials say they’ll carefully review the proposed new legislation and that they look forward to working with the General Assembly to construct the expansion in such a ways that it will maximize the federal funds coming to North Carolina to support hospitals and access to care across the state.
Medicaid Expansion – along with the Health Access and Stabilization Plan (HASP) – will bring $8 billion annually to North Carolina with no additional cost to the state.
HASP taps into a federal program that allows states to direct funds to hospitals and other providers through the managed care contracts.
With the Medicaid expansion, there may also be about $1.8 billion that can be used to support behavioral health, public safety support, rural health care, and other needs across the state.
You mean that there are 600,000 MORE indigents in NC. Those who are broke, and have no health insurance? I thot the State Economy is booming. Is this a vote-buying scheme for incumbents?
Most of these people were supposed to be covered by The Affordable Care Act but realized they had to pay for it and decided not to when they realized healthcare wasn’t free. Veterans are covered by the VA so saying they will be covered makes no sense. This plan is a move toward Universal Health Care which the Democrats seriously want in the US but will completely ruin our healthcare system beyond that which has already happened since the ACA was enacted. We’re already dealing with doctor shortages, staffing shortages, time constraints on patient contact, small practices being forced to merge with huge corporate practices, and thousands of doctors and nurses retiring early because they don’t like the resulting loss of patient-centered care.
The British healthcare system recently proposed looking at charging most users for some of the basics of healthcare, has raised the tax rates that pay for care over the last few years, and has implemented a means-tested lifetime cost of health coverage for all citizens. Healthcare isn’t free and the “free” system in the UK is beginning to fail because the demand on the system is greater than the number of providers they now have or will have in the foreseeable future. They have the same challenges we are seeing here with an increase in population due to immigration, more low-income people due to job loss (and here fewer employers offering health insurance benefits) which lowers taxes that sustain government-paid insurance, a massive loss of doctors and nurses in the medical field due to COVID mandates, and an increasing move toward health care that is based on volume-based compensation (generally seeing around 11-15 patients a day) instead of patient outcomes.* This doesn’t leave much time for in-depth consultation or listening to the patient and family about their concerns or issues.
Expanded Medicaid will not only cost our state more, we as taxpayers will pay for it with federal taxes because the money comes from somewhere. Additionally, this will change how all Medicaid programs work in the state and it will create problems for anyone currently on Medicaid. When this was implemented in CA several years ago it created several Medicaid programs throughout the state instead of one entire state program, so if you moved from one part of the state to another you had to check to see if nursing facilities and specialty doctors were available for any special needs you might have in the new area you were moving to. (This was a problem for our family as my mom was a quadriplegic and her special need for care wasn’t covered in all areas of the state by the MediCal programs offered so my parents were limited in terms of nursing facilities they could choose and places they could move to, and not all MediCal benefit programs covered the Kaiser Hospitals they had their Medicare Advantage Insurance benefits with. It was really difficult because it limited them in where they could move or if they could even move at all.)
Some people will like this program but some won’t. It’s not a complete solution to the issues we have with uninsured persons and I think there were better ways to handle the problems but there are political agendas. I am irritated at Moore and Berger for pushing this compromise because it’s not good for the people who get the insurance or for us as taxpayers.
You are right, the NHS is a nightmare and a total failure. There isn’t enough money in the UK to pay for transplants for everyone, not here either. Watch GBN news.
The Canadian system is nearly as bad. Try getting something you need that can be put off. Provincial sales taxes as high as 15% that will not pay the cost. Many snowbirds come here to get services – selfpay. I also understand from two of my Canadian friends that you can purchase immediate health care if you will pay cash out of pocket.