In talks with Obama, McCrory considers Medicaid expansion

Governor Pat McCrory, along with four other governors, traveled to the White House on Tuesday to talk with President Barack Obama about a variety of issues, including Medicaid expansion.

“We had a very lengthy and intellectual discussion,” said McCrory in a statement.

McCrory’s discussion with Obama follows comments from N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Aldona Wos about the possibility of Medicaid expansion. In September, Wos said the state was “at a point where we have an ability now to evaluate options” for expansion.

Under the Affordable Care Act, states could expand their Medicaid programs to people within 138 percent of the poverty line. A number of states, primarily with Republican governors, declined to expand their programs, but states like Michigan and Arkansas have started to reform their programs after initially refusing federal money for expansion.

North Carolina is one of the states that did not increase Medicaid eligibility, but in talking with Obama, McCrory seems more open to the possibility of expanding the program.

But McCrory said he was open to expansion only if it was designed by the state to meet the needs of its residents — and not by the federal government.

Mitch Kokai, spokesman for the right-leaning John Locke Foundation, said in an email it is not surprising that McCrory is revisiting expansion.

“Hospitals and others who benefit directly from Medicaid payments have been pushing the governor hard to reconsider the initial decision to reject expansion,” Kokai said.

Julie Henry, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Hospital Association, said although more people are enrolling in health insurance through state exchanges, there has been little change in the amount of people coming to hospital emergency rooms for expensive, last-resort care.

Henry said expanding health care could help lift the burden on hospitals and the state budget.

“If people have some kind of coverage through Medicaid expansion, or some other means that is affordable for them, then they are more likely to seek preventive care,” Henry said.

Still, Kokai said Medicaid expansion would hurt the state because it is already the fastest growing part of the state’s budget and draws money away from other key sectors such as education.

“It makes much more sense to wait and see what happens with the Affordable Care Act, given the major political changes in Washington, D.C.”

state@dailytarheel.com

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous headline for this story mischaracterized Pat McCrory's stance on Medicaid expansion. McCrory rejected Medicaid expansion previously, saying the system needed to be fixed first, but he said on Tuesday that he would be open to expansion if it were designed by the state. The headline has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.