Medicaid expansion still faces Senate hurdle if it can clear House

The House and Senate Democratic leaders held a hearing Tuesday at the Legislative Building on the need to offer Medicaid to more uninsured adults. Expansion advocates presented testimony from experts and everyday working people about the need to close the coverage gap.

The gap affects people who make just over poverty-level wages but don’t qualify for any subsidies on the Affordable Care Act exchange.

A state budget stalemate has gone on for three months, primarily because the budget bill lacks expansion. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper wants expansion and vetoed the budget.

The GOP-backed plan would require Medicaid recipients to work and to pay an annual premium to the state.

But even if the House passes that limited expansion, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said he wouldn't support it in the Senate.

"We feel that there are fiscal problems with that approach and that it creates some real uncertainty with budgets down the road," Berger said. "But we are trying to find a pathway to address what I think everyone acknowledges is a need out there."

Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue said his caucus will stand behind Cooper’s budget veto to force the Medicaid expansion issue.

"North Carolina is one of the seven or eight worst states now in health care and affording coverage, and that is something that we ought not be proud of," said Blue, D-Wake. "We have an opportunity to fix it and, again, to join states that are a lot more conservative than North Carolina.

At least 37 other states have approved some form of Medicaid expansion.