Most North Carolina Republicans have now embraced the idea of expanding the state's Medicaid program to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has been pushing for expansion, which could cover 600,000 low-income adults.Rebecca Cerese, a policy advocate at the North Carolina Justice Center, speaks at a vigil in front of the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., July 26, 2022After a decade of vigorous opposition, most North Carolina Republicans have now embraced the idea of expanding the state's Medicaid program to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults.
The two chambers couldn't work out their differences before adjourning, and talks between legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper - a longtime expansion supporter - have idled since then, at an impasse over other health care reforms that senators seek. But Berger remains bullish on ultimate success. "I think we'll get there," he told reporters recently.
The apparent change of heart followed years of GOP suspicion about the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which Republicans derided as "Obamacare" only to see the label, as well as the program, become highly popular. Interest also grew when the 2021 COVID-19 federal relief package offered a financial sweetener to encourage the remaining holdout states to accept expansion. For North Carolina, whose tax coffers already are flush thanks to a roaring economy, it would be an extra $1.5 billion over two years.
A pivotal moment came after the 2020 elections, when Cooper convened a bipartisan commission of medical, business and nonprofit leaders and state legislators that came up with "guiding principles" to improve health care coverage.
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