RALEIGH – Expanding Medicaid via Obamacare would be the largest increase of taxpayer-funded entitlements in state history. That this massive growth of government would happen at the hands of a conservative Republican legislature is mind-boggling and antithetical to the fiscal discipline this General Assembly has skillfully exerted in other areas of public policy.
Medicaid expansion will not only grow the size of government, it will also place those currently on Medicaid – our state’s neediest residents – in a bind as they compete with a population of able-bodied, working-age adults for healthcare access. In reality, nearly every county in North Carolina has some form of healthcare shortage, and expanding Medicaid will only worsen it.
Although legislators have claimed that North Carolina can put the pandora of Medicaid expansion back in her box after its implementation, decades of political history have shown us this program will be here to stay if it is passed.
Lawmakers have a responsibility to look out for their constituents, including taxpayers and the state’s most vulnerable. Legislators should reject Medicaid Expansion and implement supply-side reforms to bring healthcare to North Carolinians – not government insurance they can’t use.
Donald Bryson, President of Civitas Action
Civitas Action is a 501(c)(4) non-profit that educates and informs North Carolinians on policy issues and the actions of their elected officials.