John Locke Foundation opposes Senate plan to proceed with Medicaid expansion | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH     The John Locke Foundation is standing against the N.C. Senate's vote Wednesday to expand Medicaid. Expansion is the key element of House Bill 149, slated for a vote on the Senate floor later this afternoon.

    "For years, most state senators have rightfully recognized that Medicaid expansion is bad medicine for North Carolina," said Locke Chief Executive Officer Amy O. Cooke. "Their changed view is disappointing."

    "Data show that the D.C-controlled health insurance scheme will leave North Carolinians with less health care access and higher tax burdens because it's paid for through D.C. deficit spending, adding to inflationary pressures and driving costs even higher," Cooke added.

    "The Senate's Medicaid expansion bill includes some positive supply-side reforms, such as scaling back certificate-of-need restrictions and granting nurses full practice authority," Cooke said. "We should exhaust those avenues before ceding control of North Carolinians' health care to Washington, D.C."

    Locke President Donald Bryson urged state senators and their N.C. House counterparts to consider the state's recent history with Medicaid. "It wasn't that long ago that Medicaid's massive, unpredictable cost overruns tied legislators' hands during annual state budget planning," Bryson said. "Good fiscal stewardship brought that problem under control. But the threat of Medicaid dictating the state's budget choices looms again in the future.

    "Larger-than-expected Medicaid enrollment spikes in other states, combined with today's economic uncertainty, mean lawmakers could be setting themselves up for another long-term fiscal headache," Bryson added.

    Brian Balfour, Locke's senior vice president of research, offered multiple reasons for lawmakers to reject Medicaid expansion today. "Expansion would make hundreds of thousands of additional North Carolinians dependent on government for their health care," Balfour said. "Increased government dependency is decidedly not a conservative value."

    "Increased health insurance coverage will not mean increased access to care," he added. "Plus, healthier people joining the Medicaid program almost certainly will crowd out services for more needy populations."

    "The federal government is broke and dysfunctional, and chasing short-term funding options from Washington, D.C. makes for bad long-term policy," Balfour said. "There's no question that lack of access to health care is an issue worthy of attention. But expanding Medicaid will only make the problem worse."

    "Instead, legislators should focus on market-based reforms, peeling back the many layers of government regulation that drive up costs and restrict supply."


   Contact: Mitch Kokai
   Senior Political Analyst
   John Locke Foundation
   Email: mkokai@johnlocke.org
   Phone: 919-828-3876 or 919-306-8736 (cell)
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )



Comment

( June 9th, 2022 @ 6:04 pm )
 
Kudos to Locke. Raspberries to Senator "Medicaid Jim" Perry who voted for and worked for this socialistic legislation to balloon this welfare program. With "Republicans" like Jim Perry, or PHil Berger, who needs Democrats? I am very very sorry to be stuck with this liberal twit as our senator.



N.C. Lt Gov Mark Robinson 2022 NRA speech John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics The longest three minutes


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it
America needs to wake up and get its priorities right
Former President Donald Trump suggested this week that if he becomes president again, he might allow Prince Harry to be deported.
It's a New Year, which means it's time to make resolutions — even for prominent evangelical leaders. The Babylon Bee asked the following well-known figures in the faith what they hope to accomplish in 2024:
Vice President Kamala Harris will visit a Minnesota Planned Parenthood clinic, reportedly the first time a president or vice president has visited an abortion facility.
An eight-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville has been temporarily closed due to a string of “human and bear interactions,” the National Parks Service announced.
University of Wisconsin tried to punish conservatives for the fact that liberals regularly commit crimes to silence opposition
most voters think EU officials not doing a good job on illegal immigration
Come from behind by GOP candidate is a blueprint to 2024

HbAD1

Biden spending and energy policies to blame
Tuberculosis carried by illegal invaders has already infected Texas cattle
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said this week that the only campaign promise President Joe Biden has delivered on as president is the complete dismantling of the U.S. southern border.
Hamas is reeling after losing two of their most cherished leaders on the same day: military commander Saleh al-Arouri, and Harvard President Claudine Gay.
President Joe Biden’s brother told the Internal Revenue Service that Hunter Biden told him he was in business with a “protege of President Xi,” referring to the leader of China, according to notes by an IRS investigator that were divulged during a congressional interview of Jim Biden.
Gov. Roy Cooper seeks a temporary restraining order to block a law changing the composition of the State Board of Elections.
X owner Elon Musk mocked a news segment from ABC News this week that promoted President Joe Biden’s talking points about the Democrat-led Senate’s failed border bill, which critics and many experts have said would make the situation on the border worse.
That’s the question Marguerite Roza of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab sought to answer in a recent webinar on the topic.

HbAD2

 
Back to Top