NC's delayed Medicaid expansion is ruining lives: NOW president
In two months, North Carolina terminated 68,399 participants from Medicaid, according to a report from the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services; 35,099 participants were kicked off in June 2023 alone, and 33,300 in July.
Where has the legislature been? On vacation! The legislature tied Medicaid expansion to a budget that is now two months late. At this rate, it’s on track to miss the deadline to allow Medicaid expansion to begin Oct 1.
That means 8,637 of the terminated participants who were determined to be ineligible for Medicaid, at least without expansion, will remain uninsured. The other 59,762 of them, making up 87% of the terminations, had their benefits dropped for “procedural reasons.”
More people will lose coverage in August, September and continuing if Medicaid expansion is not decoupled from the state budget now. Medicaid expansion could go ahead with a sentence in another bill if the legislature would get back to work!
More: Gambling? Marijuana? What laws did NC lawmakers pass? And what they are still working on?
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People say that the main hold-up for this budget is an unvetted expansion of gambling in our state. There are countless problems with this change, including the whole thing being done outside of proper process, without formal public input, and awarding the casinos to a single business.
But more than that, State Senate Leader Phil Berger has told the media that he is upset about North Carolina money going to casinos in Virginia.
However, what about the billions of dollars going from North Carolina to other states who have expanded Medicaid? North Carolina is losing out on billions and billions of dollars over the last 10 years of the legislature refusing to expand Medicaid. Medicaid expansion would have provided and still could provide tens of thousands of jobs around the state, including in rural areas. Martin General Hospital was forced to close on Aug 3, the 11th rural hospital to close in NC.
The biggest irony is that the legislature is willing to expand gambling outside of process for little gain but has refused to expand health care coverage for working people for a decade. The benefits of expanding Medicaid DWARF any possible gain from casinos.
Gailya Paliga is state president of the NC National Organization for Women.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NC's delayed Medicaid expansion is ruining lives: NOW president
