NASW-NC Advocacy Update: House Medicaid Expansion Plan

The state is potentially headed into the final week (or weeks) of the legislative session. The big news from this past week is that North Carolina House members put forward a proposal that could move our state towards Medicaid Expansion. The House intends to gut and amend Senate Bill 408 and incorporate their own plan for Medicaid Expansion. They presented this plan in the House Health Committee on Thursday afternoon.

At the time of this update, the legislative website has not updated the bill language. However, a copy of the proposal can be found here and a legislative summary of the plan can be found here.

Under the House plan, legislators would establish the Joint Legislative Committee on Medicaid Rate Modernization and Savings (Committee) and appoint twelve legislators to serve on the committee. The bill authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to develop a Medicaid Modernization plan and report this plan back to the Committee by December 15, 2022. The House could then vote on the proposed Medicaid Expansion plan after that and send it to the Senate before the end of 2022.

As provided in the bill, the plan would cover adults ages 18-64 with incomes up to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level. However, the state must terminate Medicaid Expansion if the federal government stops funding 90% of the program. Additionally, the bill directs DHHS to include work requirements if approved by the federal government. The bill also directs DHHS to incorporate how to increase access to healthcare in rural areas, how to preserve hospitals in the state, and other stipulations. The plan would also need to appropriate $1 billion of federal funding for opioid, substance use, and mental health services in the state.

As legislators work to wrap up their work in the next week or two, it is unknown if the Senate plans to address this new Medicaid Expansion bill. Legislators are also still working to release a state budget to be voted on. NASW-NC will share more details on the state budget proposal as they are made public.

At the Federal level, the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade was released on Friday, June 24, 2022. Read more from NASW-NC including statements from NASW and action you can take today.