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RALEIGH, NC – March 4, 2025 – More than one year ago, on December 1, 2023, North Carolina officially became the 40th state to expand Medicaid, the federal program for health insurance for low-resource individuals. A state Medicaid expansion (ME) bill was passed by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Roy Cooper in March. ME was in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 and left to each state to decide in a subsequent Supreme Court ruling. ME increases health care access to eligible North Carolinians ages 19-64 and their families by relaxing the program’s strict eligibility requirements.
The latest update of the NC Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Dashboard was on March 4th. There have been almost 640 thousand people in North Carolina who have been enrolled since the law took effect including more than 15.5 thousand residents of Buncombe County. It was estimated that 600 thousand North Carolinians were eligible for ME, with 15.5 thousand from Buncombe County. The state had predicted that it would take 2 years (24 months) to achieve their enrollment. After only 15 months of accepting applications, the state and Buncombe County have already exceeded their estimates to enrolling eligible persons.
North Carolina has been thrust into the national spotlight through the passing and implementation of Medicaid expansion. Its success was due to the strong grassroots support by many organizations and the efforts of Governor Cooper and both houses of the General Assembly.
It has been estimated that expanding Medicaid will bring the state 8 billion federal dollars annually, almost 2 billion dollars to support behavioral health, public safety, and rural health care, and 2 billion dollars for starting the program in 2023.
In an interview with North Carolina Health News, Governor Cooper, who spearheaded expanding Medicaid in North Carolina, said, “When I ran for governor, one of my top priorities was creating a North Carolina where people were healthier and could get the care that they need to have lives of purpose and abundance.” He added, “We knew that Medicaid expansion was an important way of making that happen, because there were a lot of hardworking people in North Carolina who were making too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough money to qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.”
There are many ways to apply for NC Medicaid for eligible persons. Those who have not yet applied should visit Medicaid.nc.gov to see if they qualify. Buncombe County residents can apply for Medicaid online and at any time at ePASS.NC.gov. Applications can be done in-person at the HHS Building on 40 Coxe Avenue, by calling 828-250-5500, or by mail.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]
ASHEVILLE, NC – March 12, 2025 – The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on March 1st shows:
Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID, flu and RSV outbreaks. For the week ending on March 1st, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level for the state is moderate. The Buncombe & Henderson counties COVID wastewater data for the week ending on February 26th shows:
During the week ending on March 1st, viral activity levels in the North Carolina wastewater were moderate for influenza A and very low for RSV, and viral activity levels in the Buncombe County wastewater were moderate for influenza A, and low for RSV.
The CDC’s weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending on February 22nd (16 days ago) indicates that levels are either high or very high in 40 of 47 continental states (with Vermont not reporting). The Mountain West and northern plains states have moderate levels. North Carolina is at a high level.
The CDC reports that the weekly percent of positive tests for RSV for the week ending on March 1st is below 5% for Region 4 (which are the states in the southeast U.S. including North Carolina).
The weekly North Carolina Respiratory Virus Summary Dashboard for the week ending on March 1st shows:
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]
UNITED STATES – February 19, 2025 – A vaccine for pancreatic cancer! What a breakthrough for the treatment one of the most devastating cancers where fewer than 13% of people live more than five years after diagnosis. The cancer is very advanced by the time someone has any symptoms. It has spread much earlier than most cancers by the time the diagnosis is made. There are very few effective treatments. Surgery is indicated only about 20% of the time due to the quick spread of this cancer. There is no routine screening test for cancer of the pancreas.
In a recent article published in Nature, researchers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City performed a phase 1 trial on 16 patients with pancreatic cancer that was treatable with surgery. A novel approach to treatment included the standard regimen of surgery, chemotherapy and an immunotherapy drug with the addition of a personalized mRNA vaccine based on the genetic make-up specific to the person’s tumor. Patients were followed for an average of 4 years. One-half of the patients had a longer recurrence-free survival time compared to patients who did not respond. These responders produced specialized white blood cells to fight the cancer. The median increase in survival time was more than 1 year. The study showed that the addition of the vaccine was safe and effective.
The vaccine teaches the body’s immune system to produce large numbers of specialized white blood cells to recognize, destroy and prevent the spread of cancer cells. These ‘killer’ white blood cells were not present before administration of the vaccine and were found to be present for up to 3 years after vaccination.
Precision medicine is a new non-traditional health care approach that uses a person’s unique genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors for a personalized prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. It is also known as “personalized medicine”. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration says that “the goal of precision medicine is to target the right treatments to the right patients at the right time.” Knowing a tumor’s genetic make-up may allow physicians to choose specific treatments that may extend a person’s life, improve their chances of survival and reduce the risk of side-effects from treatment.
The results of this study are encouraging, although it is an early trial. Larger trials are planned. Similar vaccines are being tested for treating people with melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, and the increasingly prevalent colorectal cancer.
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]
ASHEVILLE, NC – February 26, 2025 – The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on February 15th shows:
Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID, flu and RSV outbreaks. For the week ending on February 15th, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level for the state is high. The Buncombe & Henderson counties COVID wastewater data for the week ending on February 12th shows:
During the week ending on February 15th, viral activity levels in the North Carolina wastewater were high for influenza A and low for RSV, and viral activity levels in the Buncombe County wastewater were moderate for influenza A, and very low for RSV.
The CDC’s weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending on February 15th indicates that levels are either high or very high in 42 of 47 continental states (with Vermont not reporting). The Mountain West region has moderate levels. North Carolina is at a very high level.
The CDC reports that the weekly percent of positive tests for RSV for the week ending on February 15th is below 5% for Region 4 (which are the states in the southeast U.S. including North Carolina). It had peaked to more than 15% around Christmas.
The weekly North Carolina Respiratory Virus Summary Dashboard for the week ending on February 15th shows:
Listen to the full report below:
Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]
By: Kevin Eddings
For the past few years, the Trump Administration has targeted marginalized communities with comments on the legitimacy of their citizenship. Prominent examples are former President Obama and former Vice President Harris. Since starting his second term in January, Trump and his administration have tried to undo birthright citizenship, and they have accused DEI legislation for not being in the country’s best interest.
Asheville FM News Hour correspondent, K.P. Whaley, attended a protest downtown in Pack Square, against the possible deportation of immigrants within the current Trump Administration. On the February 12th. edition of the Asheville FM News Hour, religion and community were two of the many things highlighted within the issue of immigration.
Corn, a granddaughter to two immigrant grandfathers, was one of the many protesters in Pack Square expressing why this protest is important. “I am making sure we are fighting for a better America as a whole,” Corn said. “This isn’t only for Latinos. This is for everybody. Our country needs help.”
Over 300 people showed up for the protest, from all walks of life. Corn shared that it is very important to see the intersection of people who come to support. “It’s important because it is what makes up this country. We got to fight for our country. We gotta make sure we get what we need. We are all humans first, we are not robots or just things you can throw to the side.”
When asked what she would say to critics who say that protests are fruitless, Corn had this to say.
“This is how this country was built,” Corn said. “[Protest] is how we always fought people.”
Corn shared what the future of these protests will look like and what people might need to know. “Hopefully we will be trying to do more protests, especially on Saturday mornings, but the thing is you don’t need a protest to protest. You can come out here any day of the week and hold up a sign that has some meaning to it and that’s enough.”
Reverend Sara Wilcox was one of the many protestors attending the rally. Wilcox is co-founder of Land of the Sky United Church of Christ, part of whose mission is to serve as a member of Faith for Justice, committed to provoking justice for black- and brown-bodied people.
“I’m here because youth were coming here today and we don’t trust the adults in the community to keep safe spaces for our kids at this point,” Wilcox said. There are many adults who feel their policies are worth jeopardizing the safety of kids, and that’s something that we are very much against. Our government fails to make new policies that make immigration accessible and possible for folks, and that’s why people end up undocumented.”
Whaley asked Wilcox how she feels about Trump and his administration using Christianity to back their agenda.
“Many of Trump’s policies are actually deeply antithetical to the ways of Christ,” Wilcox said. “It’s an interesting thing to see the Christian right get in bed with someone who’s deeply engaged in policies and politics that seem to be about getting wealthier and taking land from people. It’s harming people, it’s completely out of realm from the ways of Jesus. And it’s not uncommon, that’s how it always happens. Constantine was the first one to get in the way and co-opt the church. And so, empire always collapses the church. It’s idolatrous.”
Listen to the full interview here:
See more photos here
