Today @NCCapitol (Feb. 12): Health care, unemployment, and the Red Route
The Senate will hold the first of two floor votes on the unemployment rewrite today. House Speaker Thom Tillis will preview the week at a 10 a.m. news conference and House committees will deal with bills on Medicaid and the Red Route.
Posted — Updated"If enacted, the legislation also would cut off all federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation – that is, benefits after 26 weeks of unemployment – to 170,000 unemployed North Carolinians. This cutoff is automatic under federal law," Harris wrote in a news release.
Individual House Republicans have expressed different sentiments on the bill. Early after it was passed by the Senate, House Speaker Thom Tillis said the chamber would carefully consider the measure to take into account objections raised by Gov. Pat McCrory. The Republican governor was worried North Carolina could lose federal funding for a benefits computer system if the bill became law as passed by the Senate.
Rep. Jim Fulgham, R-Wake, said on Saturday's edition of On the Record that he would slow down the bill because he had questions about how the state would care for those without health insurance. And leaders of the Health Committee last week said they would at least make a few tweaks in order to deal with McCrory's concerns.
However, late Monday, health care advocates said they had been told the bill would push through committee without being amended and could go straight to the House floor.
"It’s filled with complete lies about the Affordable Care Act," Dr. Charles van der Horst, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said of the petition. "He’s just not expressing any logic or any sense."
Berger defended the website Monday night, saying that the doctors were "overreacting" to his petition. Berger's petition doesn't target any individual, such as Gov. Pat McCrory or House leaders. Indeed, it seems likely the bill will be signed into law before February is over. So who is he petitioning?
"There's no specific plan at this point," Berger said. "It's just to give people an opportunity to respond and for us to hear how they feel about it."
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