Senate Approves Bill Expanding Access to Affordable Healthcare, Reducing Burdensome Regulations

Comprehensive healthcare proposal expands availability of health insurance for the working poor

A bipartisan supermajority of the Senate supported the bill

Sen. Hise: “This is the right time and the right approach to reform healthcare in North Carolina”

Raleigh, N.C. — Today, a bipartisan supermajority in the North Carolina Senate voted to support a comprehensive healthcare proposal that increases access to affordable healthcare options and reduces burdensome regulations that drive up costs for patients.

Inflation has been a gut punch to North Carolinians. The cost of everyday necessities are continuing to go up, and there is seemingly no end in sight. Even before the impacts of inflation caused by ill-advised federal actions hit North Carolinians’ pocketbooks, they were saddled with rising healthcare costs. Those costs have been increasing at a rate higher than inflation in other sectors for years.

Compared to other states, North Carolina has some of the highest healthcare costs in the nation, yet our outcomes and access do not reflect the cost.

A WalletHub study found that North Carolina ranked 49th out of all 50 states and Washington, D.C. in healthcare costs. That same study found that North Carolina ranked 43rd in access and 35th in outcomes.

“There isn’t a single North Carolinian that hasn’t been impacted by inflation and the already sky-high costs of healthcare,” Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) said. “This comprehensive strategy will reduce the cost and increase the availability of care across the state while offering a lifeline for our rural hospitals. This is the right time and the right approach to reform healthcare in North Carolina.”

Republicans in the General Assembly have spent the last decade turning around North Carolina’s Medicaid program from when it was a program that was broke and mismanaged, to one with eight straight years of solid budgets and no cost overruns. It has moved from a fee-for-service program to a managed care program, which provides some budget predictability.

The bill would expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which would extend health insurance to the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who do not currently have any. It does so without any impact on the state’s budget.

However, expanding Medicaid does not fully address the access or cost problems facing North Carolinians. This bill completes the access equation by removing unnecessary and burdensome regulations which will pass along cost savings to patients, provide patients with more options to seek care, and increase the number of providers available to deliver quality care.

The bill does the following:

• Expands Medicaid for individuals earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level ($38,295 for a family of four).
• Establishes the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program which will pull down at least $600 million from the federal government — and potentially as much as $3 billion — to bolster North Carolina hospitals.
• Requires the 10% state share to be paid for through modernizing our state’s existing hospital assessment in addition to enacting a new one on hospitals.
• Requires transparency in the form of annual reports from the Department of Health and Human Services on the financials of the program.
• Gives the DHHS Secretary the ability to end expanded coverage if the state share cannot be covered.
• Requires the expanded coverage to be discontinued if the 90/10 FMAP changes.
• Establishes a work requirement to receive expanded coverage, similar to work requirements already in law.
• Reforms the state’s Certificate of Need laws by creating two separate application pathways.
• Stops surprise medical bills by requiring healthcare facilities to inform patients if they are scheduled to see out-of-network providers.
• Requires health insurance providers to cover telehealth services.
• Allows advanced practice registered nurses to practice at the top of their license — granting them full practice authority.

The bill is scheduled for a final vote on Thursday before heading to the North Carolina House of Representatives for consideration.