The most compelling case yet for Medicaid expansion
Published October 14, 2016
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, October 13, 2016.
One of the biggest ongoing scandals in North Carolina is that several hundred thousand people live every day without health insurance because Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders have refused to follow the lead of 31 other states and expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a prominent Republican, recently touted the success of Medicaid expansion in his state, saying the naysayers there had been proven wrong and that 566,000 people he represents now have insurance coverage thanks to his decision to work with the federal government and develop a plan for expansion.
Several other Republican governors have expanded Medicaid too but in North Carolina the naysayers are in charge, leaving more than 400,000 low-income adults without health care coverage.
Studies from the N.C. Institute of Medicine and other foundations and think tanks have found that expanding Medicaid would not just provide health care to people who need it, but create jobs too, 25,000 of them in the first few years of expansion and 18,000 sustained jobs after that.
North Carolina hospitals would receive $11 billion in funding over the next 10 years if Medicaid was expanded. That’s money that could literally help many rural hospitals stay open and operating.
Those are the numbers that make a clear case for Medicaid expansion in North Carolina and they are convincing,
But a new study released this week by the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund in Chapel Hill provides the most compelling case yet for North Carolina leaders to finally overcome their rigid ideology and take another look at expansion.
The report, “Putting a Face on Medicaid Expansion in North Carolina,” includes the numbers about the lost federal funding and the hundreds of thousands of people who are being denied care by the decision to forego expansion.
And it includes the figures from a Harvard study that found that as many as 1,145 people in North Carolina may die every year because Medicaid has not been expanded and they have no access to screenings and preventive care.
But this study is about more than the numbers, as startling as they are. It is about the people who are affected by Gov. McCrory’s decision not to expand Medicaid, real people worrying and struggling and suffering.
There are devastating stories from doctors who describe the agony of their patients who pay a terrible price for not having health coverage, the missed screenings and diagnoses and early treatment that lead to almost indescribable pain.
And even more compelling are the stories in this new report from the people themselves, first person accounts of people denied access to basic health care because of the decision by the politicians in Raleigh.
The report starts with one, the words of Sonya Taylor, a 55-year-old mother and grandmother from Hertford County who comes from a family of sharecroppers. She worked full time until five years ago when she underwent a six-hour fusion operation for scoliosis in which rods and plates were inserted in her back.
Then she lost her insurance coverage which means she couldn’t afford physical therapy. Her family has a history of cancer and she now suffers with problems in her gastrointestinal tract but she can’t afford to have them checked out. Here are her words from the report.
I live in fear. My kids deal with the constant worry that they’re going to lose their mother. I feel like I’m fighting for my life and the state of North Carolina could care less.
If I woke up tomorrow and got an email telling me I qualified for some type of insurance, it would change my life. It would be such a godsend to me and my family. It’s disheartening now, because my kids see I have to fight for every bit of medical care I get. I’ve got grandkids. I want to see them grow up.
That is what Medicaid expansion is about and who it is about, not numbers and jobs and hospitals, though those are all important. It’s about people in our neighborhoods and communities.
Read this report and these words from people in our state. And more importantly ask your legislator to read them too. North Carolina surely must be better than this.
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2016/10/13/compelling-evidence-yet-medicaid-expansion/
October 15, 2016 at 10:04 am
Norm Kelly says:
Typical of libs. How has it been said by libs for at least 2 decades? 'Never let a crisis go by without proposing some sort of government legislation'? Not quite the way it was said, but the meaning is almost there. The complete meaning being, never let a good crisis go by without implementing some sort of government regulation that controls the masses, penalizes success, or allows government to interfere with business activity. That's more the way libs/socialists intend the phrase to go, but are too chicken to say it out loud.
Now comes along another arch left-wing zealot, with nothing but socialist tendencies, to label the failed socialist medicine take-over a 'scandal'. Funny thing is, Obamacancer has been a scandal from the beginning. First, it was passed along party lines. Funny how libs/socialists don't whine about 'along party lines' when they pass an outrageous, illegal, new scheme but when the NC Legislature passes meaningful, legitimate voting regulations, suddenly libs/socialists claim it was 'passed along party lines' like it's a bad thing and should not be allowed.
What's the scandal of socialized medicine? That it's a failure and libs/socialists continue to lie about it. Where in the world can ANY lib point to that socialized medicine is better than the mostly free enterprise based system we used to have? When libs lied about keeping your doctor and your plan, which lib has come out to apologize? When libs lied about premiums going down, which lib has apologized? When libs lied about 'more choices', which socialist has apologized? The scheme, that all libs know & support, is that failure was/is built into the current Obamacancer scheme in order for libs to claim they have the solution. What will be their solution? That's too easy! Their solution will be what their solution ALWAYS is; they only have the 1 arrow in their quiver. They will claim the only solution is a single payer system, eliminating ALL private sector health insurance business, and ONLY central planners will be allowed to provide medical insurance, which WILL bankrupt the nation. Need an example of why we KNOW this will happen? Do what the socialists told us to do before they passed this illegal scheme. Look at the VA Health system. What's right with it? They continue to tell us the problem and only problem with this socialist implementation is a lack of money. Like ALL lib solutions, they want to expand the program, not try to find ways to fix it. More government, less freedom, fewer choices for individuals. Or better yet, according to arch left-wing zealots, NO CHOICE at all for the masses! Take a look around the world at other socialized medicine schemes. What's the one thing lacking? Choice. Some government unelected official makes your medical decisions FOR YOU!
Is this what WE want? Nope. It's what the elitist socialist arch left-wing zealots want. VA Health care. Monopoly government education establishment. Make sense yet? Not to libs!
Federal funds? You mean the programs at the central planner level that are bankrupting the nation? Over 10 TRILLION dollars more in debt than a decade ago. The scheme of Obamascare is projected to never pay for itself, to continue to drive the national debt to even higher levels. What part of socialized medicine is sustainable? No part of it is. What part of unending increases in the debt is sustainable? No part of it.
For a very short period of time, it COULD be profitable for NC to accept socialized medicine. But for a very short time. After that, it will start to bankrupt our state as well as central planners. It's a boondoggle and only libs, socialists can't see the hand in front of their faces. Ignorance appears truly to be bliss. Take off the rose colored glasses BEFORE you cause the rest of us even more lib-induced pain!
Libs, socialists, and arch left-wing zealots are a scary bunch! Do what you want to yourself, but PLEASE leave us out of YOUR misery!
