Medicaid expansion

More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit. That’s because the states have trigger laws that would swiftly end their Medicaid expansions if federal funding falls.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey recently released data for 2023 about health insurance for every state including North Carolina.

Hundreds of thousands of low-income North Carolinians will begin the new year eligible for health insurance under the Medicaid expansion — a policy change that was a decade in the making.

After years of political back-and-forth, North Carolina has finally become the 40th state to expand Medicaid. North Carolina's deputy secretary of Medicaid, Jay Ludlam, says interest in the expanded program is running high.

North Carolina legislators passed — and Gov. Roy Cooper signed — a Medicaid expansion law earlier this year. The move will bring health insurance to some 600,000 low-income North Carolinians beginning Dec. 1. For some patients and providers, expansion can’t come soon enough.

The General Assembly was expected to pass a state budget by July 1. Now, it could be weeks until a budget is approved and state health officials can start rolling out Medicaid expansion.

The decision by North Carolina lawmakers to expand Medicaid will come with a billion dollars of new federal funds for the state. But the House and Senate disagree on how to spend the money.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday signed a Medicaid expansion law that was a decade in the making and gives the Democrat a legacy-setting victory, although one significant hurdle remains before coverage can be implemented, thanks to a Republican-backed provision.

A bipartisan agreement to expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income adults while loosening or ending several regulatory hurdles to building more health care facilities could get its final votes next week after clearing the Senate on Wednesday.

After a decade of vigorous opposition, most North Carolina Republicans have now embraced the idea of expanding the state's Medicaid program to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults.