Voters find common ground on closing NC's health insurance gap

In an era of intense political polarization, North Carolinians from conservatives to liberals are coming together on one transcendent issue: taking care of each other. 
 
According to a statewide poll of registered voters conducted in August, a whopping 75% of North Carolinians want to close our deadly health insurance coverage gap, while only 16% oppose closing the gap. Support is strong across the political spectrum, with 64% of self-identified Republicans, 76% of unaffiliated voters, and 83% of Democrats favoring closing the gap. In Senate District 31, which covers Forsyth County and elected a Republican representative, 68% of respondents support closing the coverage gap.
 
The will of North Carolina voters is ringingly clear, but will policy makers listen? 
 
It’s certainly not hard to understand why this issue is proving to be our common ground. The “coverage gap” refers to people who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to get help in the private insurance marketplace. Prior to COVID-19, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) estimated that if North Carolina took action to close its coverage gap, over 400,000 North Carolinians would gain health insurance, and with it the care they need. 
 
Then the pandemic arrived in the Old North State -- bringing record unemployment claims, more than 178,000 reported cases of the virus and almost 3,000 deaths.  KFF now reports that the number of North Carolinians who would gain health insurance by closing the gap has grown by well over 200,000.
 
These are hardworking people. They are our farmers, fishermen and frontline workers. They are small business owners, child care providers, service workers and small-church pastors. Many of them are parents raising small children. More than 12,000 are our veterans. The people in the coverage gap are our family and our neighbors. And their plight sends negative ripple effects throughout our economy. 
 
North Carolina voters are extremely sensitive to all this. According to the poll conducted in August, voters see dealing with COVID-19 as the most important election issue of the 2020 cycle. And a whopping 78% believe COVID-19 will have a long lasting negative impact on the well being of our people and our economy. These voters want action.
 
And, in fact, 38 states have already acted. They have closed their coverage gaps by expanding Medicaid, one of many solutions put forward that the NC legislature has failed to put to a vote. Events around the country as well as the most recent poll here indicate that voters have a strong desire to see a solution to this deepening problem. 
 
Most recently, voters in Oklahoma and Missouri approved ballot initiatives to close their coverage gaps by expanding Medicaid. After years of discussing the idea, what moved conservative Oklahoma and Missouri to act? No doubt, the ongoing ravages of the pandemic had a lot to do with it. But there are also substantial ancillary benefits to consider. 
For example, 81% of poll respondents favor expanding Medicaid in order to provide insurance for the approximately 12,000 people who served our country in the armed forces and now fall into North Carolina’s coverage gap.