...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 2 AM EDT
SATURDAY...
* WHAT...Southwest winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt
becoming northeast 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt.
* WHERE...Albemarle, Croatan, and Roanoke Sounds.
* WHEN...From noon today to 2 AM EDT Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions.
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Our View: NC finally sees light on Medicaid expansion
It’s still too soon to uncork the champagne but following the state Senate’s overwhelming 46-2 vote this week in favor, it looks like North Carolina will soon become the 40th state to expand Medicaid to provide health care coverage to low-income workers.
The state House still has to take final votes on House Bill 76 next week — something House Speaker Tim Moore said will likely happen on Wednesday. But since more or less the same measure already passed the House once, supporters of Medicaid expansion should be feeling confident that nearly 600,000 of their fellow Tar Heel residents ages 18-64 will finally be able to afford to go see a doctor.
One potential poison pill is Republican Senate and House leaders making Medicaid expansion contingent on approval of the state budget. That means all sorts of unpopular and undemocratic measures could be wedged into the budget, forcing Gov. Roy Cooper to sign it if he wants Medicaid expansion. House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger shouldn’t be playing politics with health care, but the fact they are isn’t surprising. It’s nothing more than what we’ve come to expect from them.
For now, we’ll just celebrate that both Berger and Moore, after years of staunch opposition, finally see the error of their ways and are supporting Medicaid expansion in our state.
Of course, not everyone in positions of power supports Medicaid expansion or sees how transformative it could be for those who now delay vital medical treatment because they can’t afford health insurance.
Both state Rep. Ed Goodwin, R-Chowan, and state Rep. Bill Ward, R-Pasquotank, voted for HB76, and we anticipate them doing so again next week. But our region’s state senator, Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, voted against the bill — one of only two senators to do so. State Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, had an excused absence and missed both the second and third readings of HB76.
Sanderson previously said he opposed Medicaid expansion because of concerns about its cost to North Carolina taxpayers should the federal government stop funding 90% of the bill. This is the same tired excuse many other legislative Republicans voiced in the past — until they, like Berger and Moore, finally decided that a federal pullback from Medicaid just isn’t going to happen, and that not expanding the program to cover low-income residents was depriving the state of millions of federal dollars each year.
Sanderson may believe his no vote was him just being consistent with what nearly every other member of his party used to believe. But sometimes stubbornness isn’t a virtue, and it’s certainly not when you have the power to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and all you care about is taking pride in not changing your mind.
We’re also disappointed with our area’s Board of Public Health. Earlier this month, the board, which oversees health services in our eight-county region, voted 7-6 to table a resolution endorsing Medicaid expansion. Even though ARHS staff advised that the expansion would benefit more than 9,000 low-income residents in the eight-county region, and would almost certainly pass before the board’s next meeting, a majority of members couldn’t bring themselves to align the region’s premier health agency with one of the most historic developments in North Carolina health care.
The reason they couldn’t was political fear. Two board members, Republicans Cissy Aydlett of Camden County and Mike Payment of Currituck County, said they wanted to get feedback from other commissioners in their counties before voting on the resolution.
While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get other opinions, not adopting the resolution to expand Medicaid was a leadership dodge. There’s nothing new the Board of Public Health members who voted to table the resolution would have learned about Medicaid expansion from their colleagues; it’s one of the most talked-about and well-known subjects in government. Plus, there’s a reason their colleagues appoint them to boards like the Board of Public Health in the first place: to show leadership and make decisions. We wish they had.
