Health & Safety

Study Says 634,000 More North Carolinians Would Be Covered Under Medicaid Expansion

88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The Piedmont | By Neal Charnoff

Published June 26, 2019 at 11:14 AM EDT

Screenshot courtesy of Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and Cone Health Foundation.

A new report says 634,000 more North Carolinians would gain health-care coverage if the state expanded Medicaid.

The analysis was done by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the Cone Health Foundation and carried out by George Washington University researchers.

The study looks at gains that would be made over the next three years.

The report determines that as well as providing the additional coverage, an expansion would create more than 37,000 jobs, and greatly contribute to local economies.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that North Carolina is one of just 14 states that has not expanded Medicaid since the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act.

A compromise budget plan submitted this week by the Republican-led state legislature does not contain Medicaid expansion, and that omission may lead to a veto by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.

Susan Shumaker, the president of Cone Health Foundation, says the report was commissioned earlier this year, and its release is unrelated to current budget negotiations.

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Neal Charnoff

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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Study Says 634,000 More North Carolinians Would Be Covered Under Medicaid Expansion

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