North Carolinians are sounding the alarm on DC insider Michael Whatley’s agenda that will devastate rural communities and jeopardize their access to health care, all so he can fund tax giveaways for billionaires.
Whatley is championing the GOP’s Medicaid cuts that could shutter five rural hospitals across the state and strip health care from more than 650,000 North Carolinians, calling them a “huge win.”
Read more about Whatley’s threat to rural health care below.
Jacob Biba | August 27, 2025
- The state Democratic party’s press conference comes as healthcare advocates and elected officials fear President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”, which was signed into law in July and cuts about $1 trillion from Medicaid, could shutter hospitals like Blue Ridge Regional and threaten healthcare access for patients in rural America, like Charlton.
- In June, before the bill’s passage, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis warned Trump’s signature tax legislation would “result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,” while Gov. Josh Stein wrote that cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to more than 3 million in the state, “would crush small and rural hospitals and make it harder for people to get the care they need.”
- “No one has cheered on these cuts more than Michael Whatley,” Charlton said during the press conference. “He calls them a ‘huge win.’ It may be a ‘huge win,’ but only for billionaires, not for people like my husband and me.”
- State officials have said North Carolina’s rural hospitals could lose $3.7 billion in Medicaid payments over 10 years because of Trump’s signature tax bill.
NC Newsline: Dems blast impact of Medicaid cuts on rural healthcare, spotlight 2026 Senate race
Ahmed Jallow | August 28, 2025
- North Carolina Democrats held a press conference Tuesday to attack Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, portraying him as a threat to rural healthcare. They pointed to Whatley’s support for the so-called “one big beautiful bill” which state health officials say could cut nearly $50 billion in Medicaid funding in North Carolina over the next decade.
- Nearly 680,000 North Carolinians have gained coverage since the expansion of Medicaid in 2023, but the passage of “one big beautiful bill,” a sweeping tax and spending package signed into law by President Trump earlier this summer, could put that coverage and the survival of some rural hospitals at risk.
- Whatley has described the passage as a “huge win,” while Democrats are making it clear they plan to use that against him in the 2026 election campaign.
- Tuesday’s virtual event featured Ahoskie Mayor Weyling White and a patient from Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, who spoke about how the changes could impact their communities, and framed Whatley, a longtime Republican strategist, as backing policies that would hurt local communities and put lives at risk across the state.
- Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, where Lea Charlton is a patient, is one of five facilities state officials say are at risk of closing. Losing it, Charlton said, would mean longer ambulance rides and delays in treatment. “If my husband and I have to drive an hour during an emergency, it could cost us our lives, and I am not kidding about that,” she said. “These decisions have real consequences for families.”
- White, who is also a healthcare professional, said Whatley is choosing the wealthy instead of protecting access to healthcare for his own community.
- Democrats’ early focus on health care reveals their intent to make the issue central to the Senate race. Whatley, who has never held elected office, will have to defend his support for Trump’s budget cuts and his record as party chair.
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