Details of NC Republicans’ Medicaid expansion deal are out. Read the bill.
To much fanfare, the House and Senate reached a deal last week on Medicaid expansion. It ended a years-long series of negotiations, first between Democrats and Republicans, then between House and Senate Republicans.
On Tuesday, the latest version of the bill was released publicly and sailed through its first committee hearing.
The Senate amended House Bill 76, the House’s version of Medicaid expansion, which then became the compromise version of the bill.
Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, said lawmakers have been discussing it “for the entire 13 years that I’ve been here.”
The only public comment came from Peg O’Connell, chair of Care4Carolina, a statewide coalition of 173 groups that support Medicaid expansion.
“On behalf of our farmers, our fishermen, our volunteer firefighters, working moms and dads, caregivers across the state, please let me say thank you for all the work and deliberation you have gone through this year. And last year. And Rep. (Donny) Lambeth, all the years I have ever known you — to get to bring us to this day,” O’Connell said.
“This is an important day for the people in North Carolina. Six hundred thousand North Carolinians who are mostly working, will now be able to lead more healthy and economically secure lives,” she said.
Lambeth, a Winston-Salem Republican who chairs the House Health and Appropriations committees, called it a team effort and a bipartisan one.
“We’ve fought over it. We’ve discussed it. We’ve cussed it. But it is the right thing to do today. And I appreciate this committee, taking it and running with it,” Lambeth said.
The compromise between the House and Senate is outlined in the new bill, which you can read here and here. Some policy changes in the bill would become law when it is passed, with expansion itself tied to the passage of the state budget.
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters last week that he considers it a “budgetary matter” and that expansion will be effective “only upon passage of the 2023 budget — that is the agreement from a timeline standpoint.” The budget could pass in June.
HB 76 would have to move through a few more committees before it can go to a vote on the Senate floor.
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 5:00 PM.
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