Medicaid expansion

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.

North Carolina General Assembly Republicans apparently aren't through talking this legislative session about a path toward expanding Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults.

North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger surprised a lot of people this week when he said he's willing to consider Medicaid expansion after years of opposing it. But the problem, he says, is House Republicans remain firmly opposed to the idea.

North Carolina is one of only 12 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Gov. Roy Cooper has pushed for expansion, but the General Assembly has opposed it. Senate President Phil Berger said on Tuesday he was willing to reverse course, but said House Republicans remained firm in their opposition.

North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is proposing a spending and borrowing spree that he says is critical to fulfilling education, health care and infrastructure demands evident before the pandemic but exacerbated since.

The COVID-10 relief bill will reduce health care costs and incentivize states like North Carolina to expand Medicaid coverage.

As the number of Americans with COVID-19 pushed past 16 million, doctors have become concerned about a growing number of patients who continue to have symptoms months after they were first diagnosed. Dr. Anthony Fauci calls post-acute COVID-19 a “significant public health issue” and it’s beginning to raise questions about access to health care coverage.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s efforts to convince Republican legislators to expand Medicaid for North Carolina’s 1.2 million uninsured continued Friday but, judging by initial comments, legislators remain unimpressed.

Election results in North Carolina did little to resolve the stalemate over Medicaid expansion that’s prevented the governor and state legislators from agreeing on a budget.

Bitter division over Medicaid expansion prevented Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican state legislators from agreeing on a budget. Now expansion is a top issue in the governor’s race.