North Carolina legislators weighing whether to expand Medicaid are getting advice from people who understand how it's been done in Republican-leaning or closely divided states.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich heads a lineup of out-of-state speakers for a General Assembly study committee meeting on Tuesday in Raleigh.
Kasich helped get Medicaid expansion started in Ohio in 2014. The Medicaid director in Montana, a former Cabinet secretary for Indiana and a health insurance lobbyist in Montana were also scheduled to address the panel.
The committee is collecting information on whether expansion and other health care access changes make sense in the nation's ninth-largest state. North Carolina is among a dozen states that haven't expanded Medicaid under the 2010 federal health care law.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is a big expansion booster, but Republican legislators have been cool to the idea. Expansion supporters are encouraged by recent openness from the GOP, particularly Senate leader Phil Berger.
