Pat McCrory rejects call for Medicaid expansion special session

Gov. Pat McCrory rejected hosting a Medicaid expansion special session earlier this week after N.C. NAACP President the Rev. William Barber called for a special session from the N.C. General Assembly to address recent laws.

But Barber, who has been leading the state’s Moral Monday protests, said rejecting the Affordable Care Act will be most detrimental to North Carolina’s poor. Barber said he feels McCrory and the General Assembly aren’t sufficiently concerned about the well-being of the state’s citizens.

“They seem to exist in an ideological conclave that prevents them from understanding the importance of the issue,” Barber said.

He said there are 1.6 million people living below the federal poverty level in North Carolina — 600,000 of whom are children — and even more who do not make a living wage. Barber said the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid would affect about 500,000 North Carolinians who will lose access to Medicaid — and could lead to 2,000 deaths due to lack of available medical treatment.

“This is not a matter of liberal versus conservative,” he said. “This is a matter of life and death.”

In a statement, McCrory said calling a special session for this is “out of the question.”

“I will not sacrifice quality care for the people truly in need, nor risk further budget overruns by expanding an already broken system,” he said, adding that a reform plan for Medicaid will be submitted in the spring.

But Barber said Republican leaders in other states have recognized the importance of the expansion — North Carolina is one of just 22 states that have not accepted the Affordable Care Act.

“Even other Republican governors have chosen to do the right thing, but not our governor,” Barber said. “It’s a matter of how we treat those who are most vulnerable among us.”

“What we will not allow is for half a million people’s hopes and dreams to be crucified,” he said.

Adam Searing, director of the Health Access Coalition at the N.C. Justice Center, a left-leaning advocacy group, said low-income citizens are also especially disadvantaged because they can’t afford to purchase insurance policies in the Affordable Care Act’s health care marketplace.

McCrory’s decision has diminished health care accessibility, Searing said. A Belhaven hospital is preparing to close as a result of the decision.

“(It’s a) moral failure of the state,” he said. “As we go forward, the consequences of the decision will become more and more clear. It means closing hospitals, loss of jobs, and many people without health care options at all.”

Searing said the state government’s decision also means that citizens are paying federal taxes but don’t see the benefits of those payments.

But Mitch Kokai, an analyst for the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, said the state government’s decision to reject Medicaid is laudable, since the current coverage system is faulty.

“The governor was right in deciding that the state is better off trying to fix the existing problems with Medicaid than expanding and shifting tens of thousands of new people into a failing system,” he said. “Having access to Medicaid doesn’t lead to increased health outcomes for anyone.”

Kokai said many of the problems that the state health care program currently faces would not be solved by expanding Medicaid. But once those problems are fixed, expansion could be considered, he said.

The N.C. NAACP plans to submit a letter to McCrory on Nov. 27, asking the governor to reconsider his decision on Medicaid insurance and unemployment insurance.

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