While the state delayed the planned Oct. 1 Medicaid expansion launch, the state biennium budget that will fund it is scheduled for a vote next week.
“We have been told the [N.C.] House and Senate have agreed on everything and we’re going back the week of the 11th, with a vote on the 12th or 13th,” said N.C. Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Franklin Republican.
Corbin, in his second state Senate term after two House terms, said that typically, the N.C. General Assembly doesn’t vote on Mondays (Sept. 11 that week), but on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The budget negotiations between N.C. House and Senate leadership have been ongoing since early July, mainly over tax packages and spending reserves left over from the previous fiscal year.
Rep. Karl Gillespie, a Franklin Republican, said on Aug. 31 that the budget negotiations are in the final stage. Gillespie, a House representative in his second term who was recently named House Majority Whip, previously has expressed frustration with the budget wait.
Due to the state budget vote delay into September, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said Monday, Aug. 28 that Medicaid expansion won’t happen as scheduled. Previously, the NCDHHS said they would need a budget by the end of August to launch on Oct. 1. Medicaid expansion became law earlier in the year.
“The delay tragically results in hundreds of thousands of people not being able to access care when they may need it most. Nearly half of the people eligible for expansion would be automatically enrolled in full coverage on day one,” said NCDHHS Secretary Kody H. Kinsley in the statement announcing the delay. “Each month of delay costs the state hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into communities across North Carolina to support care and treatment for people and help keep providers’ doors open.”
Corbin said as chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Health Care, he’s been in frequent contact with Kinsley.
“They have everything ready to roll out, everything is in agreement to go, but technically they can’t roll it out until the budget is in agreement,” Corbin said.
Along with Medicaid expansion funding, the budget will include local appropriations. Corbin can’t go into detail but said the budget will fund “a lot” of his district’s capital project requests. “Rep. Gillespie and I have worked together to request the same items [in counties in both of our districts],” Corbin said.
Gillespie said specifics on district appropriations are “unavailable at this time.”
Gillespie’s N.C. House District 120 covers Macon, Clay, Graham and Cherokee counties. Corbin’s N.C. Senate District 50 covers Macon, Clay, Graham, Cherokee, Swain, Jackson, Transylvania and west and south Haywood counties.