NC Policy Watch: “Patrick Woodie, president of the NC Rural Center, offered a robust endorsement of Medicaid expansion at a legislative committee meeting Tuesday, saying that more insured residents would lead to better physical health and improved community financial health.
Rural North Carolinians are disproportionately uninsured compared to residents of the state’s suburban and urban counties, he said, with rural counties representing 20 of 22 counites in the state where more than 20% of adults younger than 65 don’t have health insurance.
Medicaid expansion “is important for the state and rural communities in particular,” Woodie said.
The Joint Legislative Committee on Access to Healthcare and Medicaid Expansion heard its second day of presentations Tuesday on the government health insurance plan and challenges to building a healthcare workforce.
Expansion is important for rural counties, Woodie said, because it would support local economies and small businesses, and help rural hospitals.
For more than a decade, most Republicans in the state legislature have rejected expanding Medicaid. North Carolina is one of 12 states that has not expanded the health insurance program. The committee’s creation was included in the latest state budget. Committee co-chairman Donny Lambeth, a Winston-Salem Republican, said last month that he hopes to have a package of recommendations for the legislature to consider before the end of this year.”