New study: North Carolina cannot afford its Phil Berger / Roy Cooper Medicaid expansion | Eastern NC Now

Pushing the states to expand Medicaid was a key part of Obamacare, and North Carolina legislative Republicans resisted adopting it for years.  The Supreme Court had ruled it was optional with the states.  The Obamacare Medicaid expansion was one of the key legislative objectives of liberal Democrat governor Roy Cooper.

Unfortunately, some special interests who wanted this boondoggle came waving cash at RINO state senate boss Phil Berger, and he jumped aboard Cooper's  runaway train.  With Berger pushing it, enough Republican legislators joined the Democrats to pass the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.  One of the things this bill did was to make hundreds of thousands of working able bodied North Carolinians ineligible for employer paid health plans they already had and forced them onto Medicaid instead.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.  A new study from the Locke Foundation clearly shows North Carolina cannot afford this boondoggle.  Medicaid costs to state taxpayers are skyrocketing, eating up more of the state budget.  In four years, North Carolina has seen a 97.2% increase in state tax money going to Medicaid.

https://www.johnlocke.org/north-carolina-designed-a-medicaid-program-that-it-cant-afford/

https://dailyhaymaker.com/study-north-carolina-cant-afford-berger-moore-cooper-medicaid-expansion/

Back when this was going through the legislature, one group of conservative Republicans stood up in opposition to it in the House.  That was the Freedom Caucus, led by its chairman Rep. Keith Kidwell.  Unfortunately, with the Democrats supporting it,  those pushing it did not need that many RINOs to go along to pass it.