For people looking to sink talk of Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, Ohio is the go-to state to paint as a Medicaid debacle. It has made the news for its waiting lists, for budget overruns, for pharmacy deserts, and for a major health insurer looking to leave the state. The state first embraced full Medicaid...
The Republican version of Medicaid expansion will move to the House floor. NC Healthcare for Working Families passed the House Health Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 18. For more than an hour, the debate revolved around the two pillars of the GOP version of Medicaid expansion — work requirements and premium co-pays. Predictably, Democrats tried to...
North Carolina doesn’t just have a health care gap. Large fissures riddle the system. North Carolina has the 10th highest uninsured rate in the country, but it fares just as badly for how it cares for the disabled in the Case for Inclusion rankings. In North Carolina, only low-income children, pregnant women, the elderly, disabled...
The fate of the budget veto override lies in the Senate, but don’t expect a vote any time soon. For now, redistricting is the Senate’s primary focus. Bill D’Elia, spokesman for Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said the Senate is laser-focused on finishing the process of redrawing the legislative maps as required by a three-judge...
The budget passed the N.C. House in a controversial veto override, but the debate over Medicaid expansion is far from over. House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, promised a vote on Medicaid expansion after a veto override passed. He said members will debate the Republican version of the plan, House Bill 655, this week. The Senate,...
[Editor’s note: This story is part of “Cracks and Fissures,” a Carolina Journal series of articles about the implications for North Carolinians of the coverage gap between people eligible for Medicare or Medicaid and those with private health insurance. Gov. Roy Cooper is pushing expansion of Medicaid to cover the working poor but the GOP...
[Editor’s note: This story is part of “Cracks and Fissures,” a Carolina Journal series of articles about the implications for North Carolinians of the coverage gap between people eligible for Medicaid and those with private health insurance. Gov. Roy Cooper is pushing expansion of Medicaid to cover the working poor but the GOP legislative majority...
The overhaul of North Carolina’s Medicaid’s infrastructure is caught in the stand-off between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican legislature. After its funding was locked in the budget stalemate and then sunk by Cooper’s veto of a stand-alone bill, the Department of Health and Human Service delayed Medicaid transformation by four months, pushing the...
Uninsured small businesses in North Carolina could find another avenue toward getting health care via a bill on Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. Senate Bill 86 would allow small businesses to band together under trade associations and bargain with health insurers as larger employers. As the bill risks becoming trapped in the debate over Medicaid expansion,...
The state House overwhelmingly passed a bill temporarily ending a stalemate over the budget. But even after House Bill 111 passed Wednesday, July 10, the General Assembly’s political game of chicken with Gov. Roy Cooper continues. At the center of the fight is Medicaid expansion. The Senate must agree to the measure. And Cooper must...
The state’s tax-supported managed care agencies for mental health are a mess. That’s the gist of an audit released Monday, May 6, by State Auditor Beth Wood. It rebuked the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ oversight of seven Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations. And it’s the latest report documenting major problems with the...
