Health Care

Data from the CDC and state DHHS show that North Carolina has not been suffering excess deaths from Covid-19 since mid-March 2021. While Covid-19 is still out there, its effect on North Carolina is no longer causing a statistical anomaly in terms of deaths, meaning it is behaving more and more like an endemic virus, such as a flu, not a pandemic. If North Carolina is no longer witnessing excess deaths owing to Covid-19, then why does Gov. Cooper still keep the state in the minority of U.S. states still under a "State of Emergency"?

In 2018, the state Division of Health Service Regulation determined that the people of North Carolina "needed" one — and only one — new mobile PET scanner. Three years and a fight in the courts later, we still don't even have that, but we do have a record of the bad behavior inspired by this "Soviet-style" central planning. This episode illustrates why North Carolina should join the 15 states that have already repealed their CON laws.

The largest increase in Cooper's proposed state appropriations would be for employee salaries and benefits. Cooper's proposal does not provide price tags for Leandro or Medicaid expansion. Cooper would also eliminate successful and popular Opportunity Scholarships.

Part 3 of this series provides the data from the CDC and DHHS used to make the graph. It uses a sample week to demonstrate how to apply the data. The hope here is to bring more clarity to what is a very real threat still facing North Carolinians.

An analysis of CDC estimates and DHHS deaths data for North Carolina finds that North Carolina has been witnessing more excess deaths than COVID deaths. These worrisome findings seem to confirm research and experts' warnings about the potential net deadlier effects of government lockdowns and severe personal and business restrictions, such as from Gov. Roy Cooper's executive orders.

Data from the CDC and DHHS showed that NC was suffering excess deaths without even counting COVID-19 deaths, but DHHS data reporting is so far behind, it's incomplete after late September. Meanwhile, Gov. Roy Cooper was steadily increasing restrictions on people and businesses heedlessly.

The lack of oversight created “an increased risk that providers whose actions posed a threat to patient safety” continued to practice, and the audit also identified nearly $120 million in reimbursements to providers who potentially should not have been enrolled in the program.

North Carolina's archaic certificate-of-need laws leave the state with significant deficits in psychiatric hospitals and substance abuse facilities — and higher prices. North Carolina should join the 15 other states that eliminated certificate-of-need laws.

Executive Summary North Carolina is one of 35 states with a Certificate of Need (CON) program, a law requiring health providers to obtain the permission of a state board…

Lives are at stake. Are Gov. Cooper's lockdowns, business shutdowns and partial shutdowns, social-distancing policies, gathering bans, and myriad other restrictions on people, places, and events having devastating health effects on North Carolinians?