Cooper: NC General Assembly will 'eventually' reach Medicaid agreement

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said he believes "eventually" the General Assembly will reach an agreement on expanding Medicaid coverage, as lawmakers plan to revisit the issue after the new legislative session starts in January.

"They have assured me that they are for Medicaid expansion. The problem is with the clock ticking, that people die because they don't have health insurance," Gov. Cooper said in an interview with CBS 17. "Every month that goes by we're giving up more than half a billion dollars. We're costing people's lives. We're so close."

As state legislators came back to Raleigh this week for non-voting sessions, the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network re-launched its TV advertising campaign urging the state to take action on Medicaid expansion. An estimated 600,000 low-income people would gain health coverage if Medicaid is expanded.

The ad highlights North Carolina's winning history in college basketball as well as former UNC men's coach Roy Williams writing an op-ed this summer urging state leaders to support the expansion.

The group undertook a similar campaign about six months ago but suspended it after Republicans in the state House of Representatives said it was undermining negotiations.

The Senate passed a bill 44-2 in June to expand Medicaid and make a variety of other reforms that Republicans said are aimed at improving healthcare access, including law dealing with hospital competition. Republicans in the House were critical of some of those measures, but the two chambers never resolved those differences.

"We really wanted to get providers and professionals, folks who really work in this area and know it to be really engaged in a meaningful way to offer some guidance," said House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland). "I think we'll get the Medicaid issue dealt with next year."

Moore added that he wasn't sure if lawmakers would attempt to address the issue early in the session or as part of the budget negotiations that usually happen in the middle of the year.

Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), who had been a long time opponent of Medicaid expansion, said it's among his top priorities next year.

"You can count on there being an effort to move expansion and some of the other things at some point during the session," he said.

Some Republican legislators have said they remain concerned about adding hundreds of thousands of people to the Medicaid program and questioned if the federal government would continue paying the promised 90 percent share of expansion.

The North Carolina chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity urged lawmakers this year to reject expansion, saying, "The Senate should focus on reforms that create personalized health care options that better meet the needs of patients, while reducing the government's role as middle man between patients and medical professionals."

North Carolina is among 11 states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Gov. Cooper said, "Eventually they will get this done. Obviously, it will be a primary objective for the next session."