…Until Obamacare begins. As many are aware, North Carolina decided to reject the federal health law’s Medicaid expansion, where the federal government would fully fund the state’s entitlement program for the next three years. In North Carolina, expanding Medicaid would cover less than 500,000 enrollees living under 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL.) Currently, 1.5 million North Carolinians are enrolled in Medicaid.
Instead of allowing the federal government to throw more money at our already broken system and further strain our federal deficit, Governor Pat McCrory has proposed to reform North Carolina Medicaid, known as the Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina. Our state’s Medicaid director, Carol Steckel, and HHS Secretary Aldona Wos have been traveling across the state to not only promote the key points of the reform (pro-taxpayer, pro-patient), but also to gain feedback from important stakeholders involved with our current Medicaid system.
Secretary Wos writes a solid article on the positive feedback the proposed Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina has received statewide thus far. For one moment, erase from your mind what the media critics say about the terrible idea of “privatizing” North Carolina Medicaid, and read the Secretary’s statement here.
