Raleigh News & Observer Logo

Must-have Medicaid expansion in North Carolina | Raleigh News & Observer

×
  • E-edition
    • Customer Service
    • Support
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Sponsorships
    • Stay connected
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Facebook
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Social Media Directory
    • N&O Store
    • Buy Photos
    • Databases
    • Archives
    • Newsletters

    • Blogs
    • Columnists
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Health
    • Local
    • North Carolina
    • Nation/World
    • Science
    • Thumbs Up
    • Traffic
    • Weather
    • Weird News
    • All News
    • Counties
    • Durham County
    • Johnston County
    • Orange County
    • Wake County
    • All Sports
    • Baseball
    • Canes
    • College
    • Columns & Blogs
    • High Schools
    • NASCAR & Auto Racing
    • NBA
    • NFL
    • NHL
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Panthers
    • Soccer
    • Schools
    • Duke
    • East Carolina
    • NC State
    • North Carolina
    • All Politics
    • The North Carolina Influencer Series
    • State Politics
    • Blogs
    • Columnists
    • PolitiFact
    • PolitiFact NC
    • Rob Christensen
    • Under the Dome
    • All Business
    • Blogs
    • Columnists
    • Health Care
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate
    • Shop Talk
    • Stocks Center
    • Technology
    • All Living
    • Video Now
    • Best-Kept Secrets
    • Blogs
    • Celebrations
    • Comics
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Fitness
    • Food
    • Games and Puzzles
    • Home and Garden
    • Horoscopes
    • Mouthful
    • Past Times
    • Pets
    • Religion
    • Travel
    • Video Now
    • Arts News
    • ArtsNow
    • Books
    • Contests
    • Dining
    • Entertainment
    • Games
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Nightlife
    • Television
    • On the Beat
    • Happiness is a Warm TV
    • All Opinion
    • Columnists
    • Dwane Powell
    • Editorials
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Letters
    • Opinion Shop Blog
    • Other Views
    • Submit a Letter
  • Obituaries

    • Advertise with us
    • Place Ad
    • Apartments
    • Cars
    • Homes
    • Jobs
    • Legals
    • Obits/In Memoriams
    • Weddings
    • Today's Daily Deal
    • Special Sections
    • Today's Circulars
    • Rewards
    • Photo Store
  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Legals

Op-Ed

Must-have Medicaid expansion in North Carolina

By William C. Crawford

    ORDER REPRINT →

June 19, 2015 05:25 PM

Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion has become a prolonged and frightening attack on the working poor, job creation and the health of the hospital system in North Carolina.

Gov. Pat McCrory and the leaders of the General Assembly took a sworn oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States. The ACA was duly passed by Congress to provide health insurance to lower income citizens. The law is working as more than 10 million Americans have gained coverage. However, Republicans ignore the success of Obamacare and continually violate their oaths of office requiring them to follow the law. Instead of working to improve the ACA, Republicans strain to sabotage health care coverage for thousands of lower income citizens.

North Carolina could have created 25,000 more jobs with Medicaid expansion. Over 400,000 of us still have no health care insurance. We turn to the emergency room for costly, inefficient care. Hospitals are denied billions of dollars of available federal aid for indigent care because of Republican inaction. Large sums of our federal tax dollars are lost forever as they flow to more progressive states.

Republican opposition to Obamacare is particularly petty and partisan because it flies in the face of the law’s history. The ACA is largely a Republican creation. The simple facts are these: The law is broadly modeled on the extensive health insurance expansion enacted a decade ago by then-Gov. Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. His advisers later gave important counsel to both the Senate and the White House as the ACA was developed.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The News & Observer

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Obamacare is largely dependent on private sector insurance companies, not a single-payer government entity. This approach clearly tracks proposals made by various Republican think tanks in response to the single-payer model suggested by Hillary Clinton in the early 1990s. Obamacare clearly embodies Republican free market philosophy, and it was carefully crafted in close consultation with GOP members of the Senate Finance Committee and their allies – the hordes of insurance company lobbyists.

President Obama actually deserves little credit for the conceptual framework of the law. However, he courageously insisted that Congress draft health care reform and then he threw the full weight of his presidency behind the initiative. The GOP quickly abandoned the legislation soon after it was drafted. Republicans then pivoted diabolically to attack health care reform and almost everything else proposed by Obama.

McCrory and the General Assembly should implement Medicaid expansion now. Expansion should become part and parcel of McCrory’s so-called Medicaid reform. Three years of legislative wrangling should end with both phased-in reforms and incremental Medicaid expansion for the working poor. The White House has consistently signaled Republican-controlled states that it will offer administrative flexibility to implement expansion quickly. The General Assembly should choose the administrative model advanced by McCrory and the House. A doctor-managed system holds much more promise than anything proposed by insurance companies, especially those from out of state.

The long lens of history may eventually recognize that Obamacare is mostly a Republican idea or at least an effective bipartisan initiative. We are a progressive, moderate state. It is time for the Republicans to honor and reflect that tradition. It is also time for them to remember that it is their sworn constitutional duty to uphold the law even when they don’t agree with it.

McCrory and the General Assembly need to protect the working poor, stimulate job growth and help our struggling hospital system.

William C. Crawford of Winston-Salem has 30 years of experience working in the Medicaid system and has taught family policy at the UNC School of Social Work.

  Comments  

Videos

Catherine Lawson: We can face down our demons

Sending military attorneys to border? Bad policy.

View More Video

Trending Stories

‘An angry customer shot me.’ 911 calls reveal panic at Walgreens in Garner.

February 14, 2019 10:38 AM

What’s with NC State’s basketball roster? Update on 3 players who missed Syracuse game.

February 14, 2019 10:45 AM

UNC will have two players out against Wake Forest, possibly three, depending on Nassir Little

February 15, 2019 03:40 PM

Wake County commissioner accuses board member of lying, taking credit for park plan

February 14, 2019 12:40 PM

Mother said police pointed gun at 6-year-old with autism. Raleigh police say watch video.

February 15, 2019 12:18 PM

Read Next

Remembering Rep. Walter Jones as ‘the kindest man in Congress’

Opinion

Remembering Rep. Walter Jones as ‘the kindest man in Congress’

By John James Duncan Jr.

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 14, 2019 02:45 PM

Rep. Walter Jones was a fiscal conservative, but generous with his heart

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The News & Observer

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE OP-ED

The NBA All-Star Game is back in Charlotte, but has NC changed?

Opinion

The NBA All-Star Game is back in Charlotte, but has NC changed?

February 14, 2019 01:08 PM
Rep. Walter Jones: A profile in courage

Opinion

Rep. Walter Jones: A profile in courage

February 14, 2019 04:12 PM
John McMillan: lobbyist, lawyer and friend of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Opinion

John McMillan: lobbyist, lawyer and friend of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences

February 13, 2019 07:47 PM
NC should move now on safe coal ash storage

Opinion

NC should move now on safe coal ash storage

February 12, 2019 04:54 PM
How to close the Silent Sam divide

Opinion

How to close the Silent Sam divide

February 12, 2019 03:00 PM

Opinion

‘Carolina Cares’ bill would close gap in opioid treatment

February 12, 2019 12:00 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Raleigh News & Observer App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Triangletoday.com
  • Legal Notices
Advertising
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Our Ads
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
  • N&O Store
  • N&O Photos
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Report News
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use


Back to Story