UPDATED, 2:40 p.m. to include statement from Senate leader Phil Berger’s office. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper finally sat down with Republican legislative leaders Wednesday, June 19, less than two weeks before the end of the fiscal year, to negotiate a budget. But the chief…
A version of this editorial appeared in the June 2019 print edition of Carolina Journal. To sign up for a free subscription, visit here. A week ago, the state Senate passed its version of a $23.9 billion General Fund budget for the next fiscal year. The Senate and…
The struggle over Vidant Health, the regional hospital network affiliated with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, escalated Thursday. In a radio interview, University of North Carolina Board of Governors Chairman Harry Smith said there are no plans “in any shape or form for UNC…
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the folks on Jones Street. After a week of subcommittee meetings, full appropriation consideration, input from the finance side, two rare Friday sessions, and two full days of debate, on Friday, May 3, the House passed its $23.9 billion General…
If the state budget process seems polarized now, just wait. It could get even more quarrelsome as lawmakers contemplate how their votes might affect 2020 political prospects. Call it the Three P’s — preening, posturing, and preparing for election campaigns — and some of that was…
Gov. Roy Cooper is committed to full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in North Carolina, which will require drawing down (borrowed) federal funds to expand Medicaid.
A group of House Republicans is taking another whack at what they call an alternative to Medicaid expansion so uninsured North Carolina residents can obtain health coverage. State Reps. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth; Josh Dobson, R-McDowell; Greg Murphy, R-Pitt; and Donna McDowell White, R-Johnston, held a news…
The state House passed a bill Wednesday, April 3, limiting State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s plans to make the State Health Plan more solvent. But the bill may not get a hearing in the Senate, letting Folwell move forward. House Bill 184 would block…
Top-ranking senators have introduced an omnibus health-care bill that would add severely disabled people to the Medicaid rolls and abolish restrictive certificate of need laws. Sens. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, and Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, discussed Senate Bill 361, The Health Care Expansion Act of 2019,…
If Medicaid expansion forces taxpayers to pick up the tab for a service that was either previously paid for some other way or not consumed in the first place, there is no reduction in the cost of care.
