Fayetteville Today

North Carolina is one of only 11 states that has not expanded Medicaid, and Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) has indicated that it is about time for the state’s Legislature to get this done, saying it is costing lives and money.

“Failure to expand Medicaid is costing lives and $521 million a month,” Cooper tweeted on Dec. 15. “It’s time to get this done.”

In Cooper’s post, he shared an editorial by WRAL News, which criticized the state’s lawmakers for failing to act on the expansion. An advertising campaign that started last week urges lawmakers to expand Medicaid as a way to help 600,000 veterans, farmers and cancer patients. The editorial asserts that this money for advertisements could have gone toward a more important cause, like helping find a cure for cancer.

“Cancer isn’t partisan and neither is having access to affordable health care,” John Hoctor, managing government relations director of the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network, told WRAL News.

According to the editorial, there has been a unwillingness in North Carolina to expand Medicaid since 2014, which was due to a “mean-spirited display of antipathy and partisan spite” toward then-President Barack Obama.

While the state has not expanded Medicaid, it has $40 billion in federal funds to use. Taxpayers in North Carolina are helping pay states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Utah, Indiana and South Dakota for their expansion. These are described in the editorial as “overwhelmingly Republican states.”

Additionally, the report said that 4,240 to 15,200 people have died due to the inability to receive required lifesaving care: 110,458 women couldn’t get breast cancer screenings done, 236,000 diabetics failed to get proper medication, and 118,000 jobs weren’t created due to the failure to act on Medicaid expansion.

The editorial said it was a “shameful legacy” to let this happen, and it is “simply a matter of doing the right and decent thing.”

“Our legislative leaders, who will be coming back for a repeat performance in January, have demonstrated they can move major pieces of legislation in mere hours,” the WRAL editorial said. “They should apply that determination as the first order of business when the new legislative session convenes. Stop the suffering and demonstrate real leadership.”