NC lawmakers file bill that would overhaul mental health, expand Medicaid

North Carolina has lagged in mental health metrics for years.

Youth suicides doubled in the last decade and resources to treat mental health are scarce. However, some state lawmakers are trying to change that.

State lawmakers in the house filed a bill that would overhaul the state's mental health system. It was a long path to get there.

"For all the people who didn't understand why we did Medicaid expansion, a lot of us had fought it for the last 10 or 12 years and then we decided it was the thing to do," said Montgomery/Stanly County Rep. Wayne Sasser.

After a decade of debate, North Carolina lawmakers voted last month to expand Medicaid in the state. Under the American Rescue Plan, North Carolina will receive an estimated extra $1.75 billion in cash for expanding Medicaid.

And Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers laid out how they would spend a billion dollars of it.

"North Carolina has approximately 300 fewer state psychiatric beds available to patients because we cannot staff these beds," said Forsyth County Rep. Donny Lambeth. "At the same time on any give day in North Carolina we  have over 300 individual patients in an emergency room awaiting care."

The plan would invest in three key areas.

• $225 million would be allocated to improving access to behavioral health services
• $200 million to building a statewide behavioral health crisis system
• $50 million for tele-health programs and a centralized bed registry

The mental health care crisis in North Carolina has forced lawmakers to work across the aisle. While there is still a long process for the bill to become law, they are optimistic.

"This is a good day that we have a billion dollars, that's with a b," Sasser said. "To spend on mental health and substance abuse disorders."

Of course, this is a one-time funding bonus and another source of funding would have to be secured for the more successful initiatives. The bill would have to make it through the senate.