Governor Stein and NCDHSS on the importance of Medicaid in North Carolina

ROCKY MOUNT, NASH COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - In honor of the two-year anniversary since Former Governor Roy Cooper signed the Medicaid expansion into law, Governor Josh Stein met with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services at Nash General Hospital Wednesday.

“Rural hospitals are on stronger ground,” Governor Stein says. “Solid ground and local economies are stronger. Those are win, win, win.”

After more than a year of Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, healthcare has become a reality for people like Linda Betancur, a senior citizen.

“My bills are very, very low. I don’t pay for nothing. No prescriptions, no nothing, no doctor, no copayments, no nothing. So I am very grateful for them,” Betancur says. “Very grateful.”

But according to Governor Stein, he fears the Federal Government is going to put Medicaid coverage at risk, with more than 640,000 North Carolinians relying on that coverage.

A roundtable at Nash General Hospital discussed the vitality of Medicaid in Eastern North Carolina, particularly in rural communities.

North Carolina had more rural hospital closures than anywhere else in the country before the Medicaid expansion, according to Stein.

“What I want to make sure happens is that the Federal Government doesn’t break what we’ve created here in North Carolina, and that is truly at risk,” Stein says.

The expanded program covers 19 to 64-year-olds with incomes that were too high under previous guidelines, but too low for private insurance.

“If we took Medicaid away from these working folks, they don’t stop getting sick,” Stein says. “It just means that they’re not going to the doctor on the front end for a checkup. Instead, they’re waiting for something to get really bad. They end up in the emergency department, which is incredibly expensive to all of us, and it takes them out of the workforce for a longer period of time.”

Stein says 21 percent of Medicaid users are seniors or people with disabilities.

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