Roy Cooper has been waiting for this for a long time.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law 13 years ago, but the Medicaid extension that was at the heart of the law is still not implemented in all 50 states.But we are making very slow but steady progress in our efforts to provide access to critical health care services to those who cannot afford private insurance and are not eligible for traditional Medicaid. Yes. Supreme Court of the United States case We supported the ACA and expanded Medicaid option for the state. 24 states accepted the extension When it became fully available in early 2014, its numbers were growing steadily, and the recent explosive momentum of voting initiative In red states like Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah. climb on board: North Carolina. As Associated Press reportthe law is on the desk of Governor Roy Cooper:
a Medicaid Expansion Agreement North Carolina has ended a decade-long debate over whether the deeply divided state will accept federal compensation for hundreds of thousands of low-income adults. …
When longtime expansion supporter Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signs the bill into law, it would have to exclude 10 states in the US that have not adopted the expansion. In North Carolina, he has 2.9 million enrollees in traditional Medicaid coverage. Proponents estimate the expansion could help 600,000 adults.
So what has changed? Basically, the financial arguments North Carolina Republicans used to oppose expansion began to sound more and more ridiculous over time. The AP continues:
In 2013, Republican lawmakers passed a law specifically prohibiting the governor’s administration from seeking expansion without explicit Congressional approval. But his one-year expansion comes as lawmakers conclude there is no chance of Congress repealing the law or raising his low 10% state threshold for insurance coverage. increased interest in
The monetary easing included in the COVID-19 Recovery Act means North Carolina will get an estimated $1.75 billion more in cash over two years if it expands Medicaid. want to use for mental health services.
In other words, Republican Cassandra warned that cunning Democrats would cut funding for expansion in Congress if states went crazy, but that turned out to be dead wrong. In addition, a very sweet deal offered by the original law has been made even sweeter thanks to the COVID law mentioned above. States like North Carolina seemed to leave far too much money on the table for no apparent reason other than partisanship, flavored with conservative hostility to potential beneficiaries. In this case, Republicans finally reversed course without much excuse. AP reports:
The turning point came in May last year when Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, a longtime opponent of the expansion, said: publicly explained his reversalwhich was primarily based on financial conditions.
At the press conference, Berger also explained the situation facing the single mother, saying she was unable to make enough money to cover her and her children’s insurance premiums and ended up in the emergency room. , said it meant they would not be able to get treatment . Intended for enough people.
“We have to cover in North Carolina for the working poor,” Berger said at the time.
Of course, that was true all along. Final legislative approval of the expansion was delayed for some time by another controversy over the regulation of medical facilities. And the expansion won’t go ahead until the state budget is passed. But in a place where Democrats and Republicans are bitterly at odds on a wide range of issues, it finally looks good for Medicaid expansion.
Remaining 10 states Has not yet expanded Medicaid; 8 states are Republican “three straight” states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming) and 2 others The states are Republican-controlled legislatures (Kansas and Wisconsin). Perhaps the unique combination of stupidity and malice that prevents state legislators from using the money provided by Washington to help their own people will soon wane elsewhere.
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