Raleigh – The pressure on North Carolina Republicans is increasing after Kansas became the most recent state to expand Medicaid after their Democratic Governor and Republican controlled state legislature reached a compromise last week.

Expanding Medicaid remains a top priority for Democrats, particularly after a report found that every single county in North Carolina would benefit from expansion. While Rural leaders and leaders of local health care systems continue to call on the General Assembly to expand Medicaid, Republicans continue to ignore their requests and make politically motivated decisions rather than making important progress for their constituents. 

As the Legislative session re-opens tomorrow, Republicans will face the question again: will they continue to block progress even as other Republican legislatures across the country see the light?

Winston-Salem Journal: Spotlights heats up on N.C. GOP as another red state reaches Medicaid expansion compromise

By Richard Craver

January 13, 2019

Key Points:

• North Carolina, particularly its unyielding Senate Republican leadership, is in the national spotlight on Medicaid expansion as the legislature resumes its 2019 session Tuesday.

• “Republicans may be able to hold off the Medicaid expansion in some parts of the country — and it’s still possible that a continuing lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act could wreak untold havoc,” [Washington Post writer opinion, Greg] Sargent wrote Friday in response to the Kansas compromise. But the public argument over the expansion may be close to over.”

• “This move makes the (seven) Southern block of states look more and more like stubborn outliers in refusing to even consider more conservative versions of Medicaid expansion,” [Mark Hall, a law and public-health professor at Wake Forest University] said.

• When Tuesday’s session begins, it will be Day 201 since the budget veto, as well as Day 125 since the state House overrode Cooper’s veto in controversial fashion Sept. 11.

• For example, a national study found that at least 1,400 North Carolinians may have died between 2014 and 2017 because the state has not expanded Medicaid coverage.