RALEIGH, NC – September 27, 2023 – North Carolina can expand Medicaid because the Republican-dominated General Assembly recently agreed upon the 2023-24 state budget and passed it on September 22nd. The House and Senate have been negotiating over the budget for months. A recent Senate version would legalize nontribal casinos. However, the House did not include this provision. Moving forward, the Republicans in the House and the Senate decided to keep casinos out of the budget two days before the vote. According to a statement by Governor Cooper, “While there are many problems with this budget, it fulfills my promise to enact Medicaid Expansion.” The Governor has decided to allow the bill to pass without his signature so it will become law 10 days later. The Republican-dominated General Assembly has avoided this issue for a decade until bringing it up last year. North Carolina becomes the 40th state to enact Medicaid expansion.
A state Medicaid expansion (ME) bill was passed by the General Assembly and was signed by the Governor in March. However, the bill was tied directly to agreeing upon the 2023-24 state budget. Medicaid expansion brings healthcare access to 6 hundred thousand under-resourced North Carolinians, including almost 17 thousand people from Buncombe County. Expanding Medicaid will bring 8 billion federal dollars annually to the state and almost 2 billion dollars to support behavioral health, public safety, and rural health care. If the ME program is begun this year, North Carolina will receive an almost 2 billion dollars incentive of federal funds. By delaying ME, the HHS estimates that 9 thousand North Carolinians a month are losing their Medicaid coverage who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid expansion.
Kody Kinsley, the secretary for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, has estimated that the department may begin adding newly eligible people in December at the earliest.
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Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, healthyasheville@ashevillefm.org