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[quote=Anonymous][quote] NORTH CAROLINA WAS ONE OF THOSE Republican-led states that at first refused to participate in Obamacare’s “Medicaid expansion,” which makes federal funding available to states that widen their Medicaid programs to include many more people living near the poverty line. But advocates in North Carolina kept organizing and lobbying on behalf of expansion, and when popular Democratic governor Roy Cooper came into office in 2017 he made expansion a top priority. Small business owners and hospital leaders eventually became outspoken backers of expansion, helping to persuade key state Republicans to embrace the cause.

In the spring of 2023, the Republican-led legislature passed a bipartisan expansion bill and Cooper signed it. The new program launched on December 1 of that year, with about 300,000 people automatically enrolled. Since then, it has swelled to cover more than 600,000.

But those numbers alone don’t capture the full impact. Expansion has meant new money for providers who serve low-income populations, because now more of their patients can pay their bills.

That’s been especially important for organizations like Blue Ridge Health, a network of clinics in North Carolina’s westernmost counties where the percentage of uninsured patients declined almost overnight from about half to about a third, according to Richard Hudspeth, the system’s director.

Because that shift has increased revenue, Blue Ridge can now offer services like pediatric dentistry and behavioral health that had been practically unavailable in these rural communities before. It has also expanded its overall capacity—which, Hudspeth told me, made a big difference when Hurricane Helene swept through the region last fall.

“There was so much debris, and all these respiratory infections,” said Hudspeth, who is also a family physician and still sees patients. “Having that capacity let people get their lives together quicker, and get back to work too.”[/quote]
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/medicaid-cuts-republicans-severing-lifeline-north-carolina

The thing is. This will shutdown hospitals and force providers out of these states. Even if you have great insurance in these states the BBB will make it a lot harder to find providers.

Good luck everyone!
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