White House: Expanding Medicaid would prevent 380 deaths a year in NC

In its latest health care push, the White House said Thursday that expanding Medicaid would prevent 380 deaths a year in North Carolina.

The Obama Administration has trumpeted the benefits of Medicaid expansion in the past, but it is adding mortality to the list of consequences for non-participating states in its latest update.

The report says that 5,180 deaths could be prevented annually in the 22 states that have opted not to expand the federal health care insurance program for the poor and disabled. That ranges from 20 deaths prevented annually in Wyoming and Alaska to 900 in Florida and 1,330 in Texas.

Already 28 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid, preventing 5,030 deaths annually in those states, according to the report.

Expanding the program here would provide health insurance to 313,000 in North Carolina.

Additional statistics project:

▪ 44,500 fewer people would have trouble paying bills because of medical costs.

▪ 29,000 fewer people would experience symptoms of depression.

▪ $3.67 billion in federal funding would flow to the state.

Republican critics of Medicaid expansion here have said the program in inefficient and would burden the state’s budget.

The federal government would cover the full cost of Medicaid expansion through 2016 and subsequently would cover progressively less, down to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.

This story was originally published June 4, 2015 at 11:56 AM with the headline "White House: Expanding Medicaid would prevent 380 deaths a year in NC."