One Year After Signing Medicaid Expansion Law, Governor Cooper Celebrates the Progress as Other States Look to North Carolina’s Playbook
RALEIGH: Today marks the one year anniversary of Governor Roy Cooper signing Medicaid expansion into law, making North Carolina the 40th state to join this critical program. Just under 4 months since expansion went into effect, nearly 400,000 North Carolinians have gained access to affordable, quality health care. As North Carolina shows tremendous success with the program, holdout states are looking to Governor Cooper’s leadership as a model for how they too can expand Medicaid.
“A year ago today, I signed Medicaid expansion into law after years of fighting for high-quality health care for all North Carolinians and we've already seen its life-changing impacts in communities across the state – particularly in rural counties," said Governor Roy Cooper. "Nearly 400,000 people have been able to get the care they need to stay healthy, support their families and have peace of mind knowing health care is within reach. Together with our partners, we will continue to make sure every eligible North Carolinian can enroll in Medicaid and live healthy lives of purpose and abundance.”
In January, the Associated Press reported on Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s effort to expand Medicaid in her state explaining that, “she modeled her campaign on one by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, where a GOP-dominated legislature expanded coverage as of Dec. 1.”
And this week, reporting from Mississippi shows how Governor Cooper’s strategy to bring Republicans and Democrats together on the issue could be used in that holdout state.
Mississippi Today: Gov. Roy Cooper, the most recent state leader to expand Medicaid, has advice for Mississippi lawmakers
Adam Ganucheau, March 26, 2024
No one more deeply understands the fraught politics of pushing Medicaid expansion in a red state than North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
When the Democrat moved to expand Medicaid in 2017, the state’s legislative Republicans sued him in federal court to block him. Their years-long opposition to expansion, much like the sustained GOP blockade here in Mississippi, was rooted in little more than blind politics.
The expansion program, of course, runs through the Affordable Care Act, perhaps the biggest legacy of President Barack Obama. The all-too-familiar logic of North Carolina’s Republicans in opposing Cooper’s expansion effort: Obamacare is bad, Republican power is good.
Unsuccessful at first, Cooper got to work. He traveled his state to listen to constituents, and for years he led a coordinated pro-expansion effort. He pieced together a bipartisan coalition that became too powerful for the GOP lawmakers to ignore. Business leaders lobbied, health professionals pleaded, religious leaders prayed.
At long last, in 2023, North Carolina became the 40th and most recent state to expand Medicaid. An overwhelming majority of legislative Republicans — yes, even most of the loudest earlier opponents — ultimately voted yea.
“That was one of the greatest days of my life,” Cooper told me in an interview on Tuesday. “It was a day that changed so many lives, and the people of North Carolina are better off today for it in every way.”
Cooper has been following the high-profile debate of Medicaid expansion in the Mississippi Capitol this year. Here in Jackson, House Republicans overwhelmingly passed an expansion proposal on Feb. 29. But Senate Republicans are stalling and proposing their own plan — one that is so watered down and ineffectual that Mississippi wouldn’t be considered an expansion state if it passes.
As major deadlines approach and the politics heat up, expansion in Mississippi is still far from reality.
The North Carolina governor said he noticed a recent tweet from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves using yet another one of those tired “Obama is bad” lines.
“It’s really quite sad, isn’t it?” Cooper asked me rhetorically.
Truthfully, Mississippi Republicans have little reason to care what Cooper has to say. But before you write off his words, know this: Two different times, North Carolinians elected Cooper on the same ballot that Republican Donald Trump won. Let that sink in: A majority of North Carolina voters elected a Democratic governor while casting votes for Trump on the same ballot. He’s clearly trusted and respected by many Republican voters in his state. Few politicians in America could claim that level of crossover support these days.
His popularity, many in the Tar Heel State believe, got Medicaid expanded and will provide health care coverage to an estimated 600,000 North Carolinians.
So when I got a few minutes with the political savant this week, I couldn’t help but ask: What would he say to Mississippi lawmakers as they’re considering expansion?
“Listen to your constituents instead of the partisan rhetoric,” Cooper responded. “You’ll hear from small business owners that they’re having a hard time affording health insurance for their employees. You’ll hear from rural county commissioners and local government officials that their rural hospitals are in danger of closing. You’ll hear from local law enforcement officers that they’re spending a lot of time dealing with people who are mentally ill or have substance use disorder. If you listen to doctors and health care providers, they’ll tell you they’re having a difficult time treating indigent patients. And if you talk to people who are working hard, making a living and just can’t afford health insurance, they’ll tell you this is a great deal for Mississippi.”
Read the full article here.
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