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Rebecca Cerese, a policy advocate at the North Carolina Justice Center, speaks at a vigil in front of the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, July 26, 2022, to remember people lacking Medicaid coverage or insurance who have died. Cerese and other speakers urged lawmakers to pass a law so North Carolina accepts federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of additional adults
Courtney Crudup, 32, of Oxford, N.C., speaks on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, outside the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., at a news conference and vigil highlighting people who have died while lacking health insurance and urging lawmakers to expand Medicaid in the state. The Republican-controlled House and Senate passed separate, bipartisan measures in June that address expansion, but legislators, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and lobbying groups are still trying to hammer out a compromise.
FILE - In this March 28, 2017, file photo, Republican leaders Rep. Tim Moore, left, and Sen. Phil Berger hold a news conference in Raleigh, N.C. A deal on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is within reach after both legislative chambers passed competing measures before ending their annual session. North Carolina is among a dozen states yet to accept the federal government’s offer to cover people who make too much to be insured by traditional Medicaid but too little to obtain private insurance.
FILE - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday, April 14, 2022. A deal on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is within reach after both legislative chambers passed competing measures before ending their annual session. North Carolina is among a dozen states yet to accept the federal government’s offer to cover people who make too much to be insured by traditional Medicaid but too little to obtain private insurance.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — 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. Legislative approval finally appears within reach.
During the General Assembly session that ended July 1, the GOP-controlled House and Senate passed separate, bipartisan measures by wide margins that would put the state on the path to Medicaid expansion. Some details remain to be worked out, but there's a real opportunity to hammer out a compromise by year's end.
It's a remarkable political turnabout in North Carolina, sure to be analyzed in the dozen states that have yet to accept the federal government's offer to cover people who make too much to be insured by traditional Medicaid but too little to receive subsidized private insurance.
“If there’s a person in the state of North Carolina that has spoken out against Medicaid expansion more than I have, I’d like to meet that person,” Senate leader Phil Berger said when he sought to explain his reversal at a news conference in May. “We need coverage in North Carolina for the working poor.”
The two chambers couldn’t work out their differences before adjourning, and talks between legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper — a longtime expansion supporter — have idled since then, at an impasse over other health care reforms that senators seek. But Berger remains bullish on ultimate success. “I think we'll get there,” he told reporters recently.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done ... but overall we are feeling extremely encouraged by how far we’ve come,” said Erica Palmer Smith, executive director of Care4Carolina, a coalition of 150 groups that has worked for expansion since 2014.
Other advocates are tired of waiting. They say too many of the working poor are uninsured, risking their health and their lives. Others on traditional Medicaid worry that without expansion, they'll no longer be covered if they make too much money.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Courtney Crudup, 32, of Oxford, a mother of three and a cosmetologist who is currently unemployed. She spoke this week outside the Legislative Building at an event urging lawmakers to act. “Hear our stories. Hear regular people like me and people that want to work."
The apparent change of heart followed years of GOP suspicion about the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which Republicans derided as “Obamacare” only to see the label, as well as the program, become highly popular.
For years, Republicans said they couldn’t trust Congress to keep the federal government’s promise to pay 90% of the costs of expansion. They said the state’s Medicaid program — now with 2.7 million enrollees — had been overspending for years and was ill-prepared to take on more.
And fundamentally, they argued that more people would become dependent on government if allowed to benefit from Medicaid, which now mostly serves poor children and their parents and low-income elderly people.
Republicans say North Carolina Medicaid spending is now largely under control and they don't think Congress will increase the state's share of the cost beyond 10%. The state’s portion — perhaps as much as $600 million annually — can be covered by assessments on the state’s hospitals and insurance plans.
Interest also grew when the 2021 COVID-19 federal relief package offered a financial sweetener to encourage the remaining holdout states to accept expansion. For North Carolina, whose tax coffers already are flush thanks to a roaring economy, it would be an extra $1.5 billion over two years.
“This is an opportunity to take federal dollars, actually present a savings to the state of North Carolina and increase access to health care,” House Speaker Tim Moore told colleagues in June. “I’d call that a pretty good trifecta to do those things.”
Cooper also can take credit for his persistence. He's pushed nonstop for expansion since taking office in 2017, citing the economic shot in the arm the federal money would bring to rural hospitals, communities and families of the 600,000 residents who could qualify.
Cooper went so far as to veto the 2019 state budget because Moore and Berger wouldn’t commit to Medicaid talks. He signed this year's, saying "we are closer than ever to agreement on Medicaid expansion,” and a veto “would be counterproductive.”
A pivotal moment came after the 2020 elections, when Cooper convened a bipartisan commission of medical, business and nonprofit leaders and state legislators that came up with “guiding principles” to improve health care coverage.
"People with quite different political views were willing to listen to those who are coming at these issues from different backgrounds and different concerns,” said Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, which convened the commission.
Another influencer was former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who told a joint House-Senate committee in March how expansion has worked in his Republican-leaning state. The committee focused on the details, including how to increase the number of nurses, hospital beds and services in the state.
Negotiations slowed this summer between the House, Senate and Cooper, largely because the Senate wants regulatory changes aimed at providing even more access to services that it says will result in lower costs.
They include giving nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and others the ability to work independently from doctors, and scaling back “certificate of need” laws that critics say enable medical providers to limit competition that could bring down their revenue.
Berger blames hospitals for refusing to accept a compromise. The North Carolina Healthcare Association, representing hospitals and health systems, said it has raised concerns about Berger’s bill, but remains an expansion advocate.
“It’s positive that both chambers now support expansion, and right now hospitals hold the key to getting this done,” Cooper spokesperson Ford Porter said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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The mayor of North Carolina’s largest city has won another term as mayor, while the top law enforcement officer in the state’s largest county fell short in his reelection bid. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles won a third term on Tuesday, as the Democrat defeated her Republican rival by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker lost handily to former deputy Willie Rowe in a runoff for the Democratic nomination. Rowe will now take on Republican Donnie Harrison in the November election. Voters in more than a dozen municipalities or counties had elections on Tuesday.
Over a dozen North Carolina municipalities or counties are choosing new elected officials, with some picking party nominees for the fall. Voting precincts in these areas are open on Tuesday. Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Hickory, Mooresville and Sanford are choosing mayors, city council members, or both. Elections also include runoffs in Cary, New Bern, Rocky Mount and Statesville and for Franklin and Jackson county school boards. And voters will decide on the Democratic candidate for Wake County sheriff and the Republican candidate for Graham County sheriff. Seventeen days of early in-person voting ended Saturday.
Former U.S. women’s national team star goalkeeper Hope Solo has pleaded guilty to driving while impaired, almost four months after she was found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle in North Carolina with her 2-year-old twins inside. Solo also was charged with misdemeanor child abuse and resisting a public officer in connection with the March 31 incident. The Winston-Salem Journal reports that her attorney said the remaining two charges were voluntarily dismissed. A judge gave Solo a suspended sentence of 24 months and an active sentence of 30 days. She was given 30 days' credit for time she spent at an in-patient rehabilitation facility.
The North Carolina Supreme Court is speeding up further challenges to the boundaries for the state’s legislative seats and congressional districts. The Democratic majority on the state's highest court agreed on Thursday to hold oral arguments in early or mid-October. The arguments won't alter the district lines for this year’s elections, which are already happening under the challenged maps. Any ruling could clarify further how to avoid partisan gerrymandering that the same 4-3 majority ruled in February that it found in the original maps the General Assembly drew. New versions of these maps followed. Republicans on the court say speeding up the case was unnecessary.
North Carolina’s Republican General Assembly leaders have asked a federal judge to reinstate a 20-week abortion ban previously thrown out by courts, despite the Democratic attorney general’s refusal to seek enforcement of the ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide abortion protections. Outside attorneys for Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore asked U.S. District Judge William Osteen on Wednesday to vacate his 2019 ruling that blocked the execution of the ban based on precedents set in Roe v. Wade and an associated 1992 Supreme Court ruling, both struck down on June 24.
A North Carolina sheriff's office says one person was arrested and authorities are looking for a second suspect after they made up a story about a home invasion to cover up an assault on a 73-year-old woman. News outlets report deputies from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office were called to a home on Wednesday by a woman who told them she had returned to the home to find her boyfriend’s mother badly beaten, news outlets reported. She told deputies two men had come to the back door of the house while the victim was home alone, forced their way in and then beat her severely before leaving. Investigators said physical evidence showed the story was fake, and they arrested a woman and are looking for a second woman.
Authorities in North Carolina say a Virginia man drove more than 300 miles to confront a 27-year-old man who he said dated his daughter, then fatally shot him in a fight. News outlets report that the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office says emergency responders found Jared Musgrove shot at a Hubert mobile home park on July 5 and he was pronounced dead at a hospital. The sheriff's office says investigators learned that James McAlee drove from Alexandria, Virginia, to confront Musgrove about an alleged relationship with McAlee’s adult daughter and they fought. The sheriff's office says McAlee got a gun from his truck and shot Musgrove. Officials say McAlee was arrested this week and charged with murder.
A federal judge has agreed to block for now any enforcement of a state law in a political ad investigation of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s campaign. U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles ruled Monday for Stein’s campaign and others who recently sued State Board of Elections members and the Wake County district attorney. Eagles declared Stein's campaign is likely to win on legal claims that the law is unconstitutional. The law got cited when Stein's 2020 Republican challenger complained about an ad involving untested rape kits. The law prohibits circulating false information about a candidate with a goal of hurting their election chances.
Tens of thousands of people in North Carolina serving punishments for felony convictions but who aren’t behind bars can now register to vote and cast ballots. The change comes following an appeals court ruling. The State Board of Elections said the expanded scope of who can register and vote begins Wednesday. A law meant to prevent felons from having voting rights restored while they are on probation, parole or post-release supervision is before the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a lower court ruling that prevented these registrations from being fulfilled essentially expired Tuesday. About 56,000 people could be affected.
General Assembly leaders are acknowledging compromise for North Carolina to embrace Medicaid expansion likely won’t come quickly after the legislature adjourned recently its chief work period for the year. Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore spoke on Tuesday while the legislature convened floor meetings this week in which no votes will be taken. The two chambers passed separate legislation in June that set the state on the path to accept federal funds to cover 600,000 low-income adults. The Senate measure contained additional health care reforms that the House didn't want to address. The state's hospitals could be the likely linchpin on finding a compromise.
Rebecca Cerese, a policy advocate at the North Carolina Justice Center, speaks at a vigil in front of the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, July 26, 2022, to remember people lacking Medicaid coverage or insurance who have died. Cerese and other speakers urged lawmakers to pass a law so North Carolina accepts federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of additional adults
Courtney Crudup, 32, of Oxford, N.C., speaks on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, outside the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., at a news conference and vigil highlighting people who have died while lacking health insurance and urging lawmakers to expand Medicaid in the state. The Republican-controlled House and Senate passed separate, bipartisan measures in June that address expansion, but legislators, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and lobbying groups are still trying to hammer out a compromise.
FILE - In this March 28, 2017, file photo, Republican leaders Rep. Tim Moore, left, and Sen. Phil Berger hold a news conference in Raleigh, N.C. A deal on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is within reach after both legislative chambers passed competing measures before ending their annual session. North Carolina is among a dozen states yet to accept the federal government’s offer to cover people who make too much to be insured by traditional Medicaid but too little to obtain private insurance.
FILE - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday, April 14, 2022. A deal on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is within reach after both legislative chambers passed competing measures before ending their annual session. North Carolina is among a dozen states yet to accept the federal government’s offer to cover people who make too much to be insured by traditional Medicaid but too little to obtain private insurance.
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