Halting Medicaid Expansion is a bad move for NC

 PRESS STATEMENT                                          CONTACT: Claire Hermann

Feb 13, 2013                                                                  (919) 533-9677, claire@ncaan.org

HALTING MEDICAID EXPANSION A BAD MOVE FOR NORTH CAROLINA

The North Carolina House of Representative’s preliminary vote tonight to halt Medicaid expansion is bad news for hardworking North Carolinians. 

Medicaid expansion would insure 500,000 people, save lives, create jobs, sustain rural hospitals, and reduce the costs of uncompensated care.

Right now, low-income people living with HIV must wait until they are sick enough to qualify as disabled before they can be insured through Medicaid, even though we know that early treatment can improve health outcomes, reduce the cost of care, and dramatically slow transmission of the virus.

Expanding access to care for people living with HIV could be the key to turning around the HIV/AIDS epidemic in North Carolina, where an estimated 35,000 people are living with HIV.

The chance to improve the health of hardworking people in this state while creating and sustaining critical healthcare jobs should be more important than partisan politics.

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