Look what can happen when an elected one hears from and listens to REAL PEOPLE.

Quite often, politicians take heat for voting one way and then going the other way.  Sometimes, it takes a visit away from the political silly circus to get your head — and the facts — straight.

State Rep. Ben Moss (R), a candidate for Labor Commissioner, has apparently gotten many earfuls of wrath from taxpayers.  (Those lobbyists with the cash and Speaker Timmy’s bunch sure made voting FOR Medicaid expansion seem like such a win-win “piece of cake.”)

Moss sounds like, after hearing from constituents, he’d like to change his previous vote of YES to NO:

[…] On Wednesday, state Rep. Ben Moss (R – Moore, Richmond) announced that he will be changing his vote on HB 76 Medicaid Expansion, vowing to vote “NO” when it returns to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

“I had originally voted for Medicaid Expansion because I care about healthcare access in rural and underserved communities across the state,” said Moss, “Now having had more time to review the proposal and solicit feedback from my constituents, I’ve found that this proposal will have the opposite effect in the long-run, and it is bad news for my district, our state, and our nation. The heavy hand of government is not able to supplant the free market approach to keeping health care affordable for all. I remain committed to ensuring quality healthcare access, and that’s why I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Save ACT and full repeal of CON.”

According to Moss’s release, Medicaid Expansion is a “shortsighted approach” that would leave the state high and dry without addressing the root of the problem, and the current proposal does not account for the cost of adding half a million new beneficiaries to the Medicaid rolls.

“Medicaid expansion is a budget black hole that would crowd out important spending,” said Moss, “Medicaid already takes up a large portion of North Carolina’s budget, at about $4 billion and growing. When the federal government gets hit with higher-than-expected Medicaid costs, they have the ability to print more money and add to the growing national debt. North Carolina is required to have a balanced budget, so any higher costs means either higher taxes or spending cuts elsewhere.”

States that expanded Medicaid have enrolled more than twice as many able-bodied adults as projected – more people than they thought were even eligible for the program. Medicaid expansion per-person costs have exceeded original estimates by 76%. This enrollment explosion, combined with higher per-person costs, has led to cost overruns of 157%. A review of every state with available spending projections and actual cost data reveals that taxpayers have spent more than double on Medicaid expansion than state officials had estimated. […]

I have to applaud the guy for finally seeing the light.  This one change will not affect the legislation currently moving through the General Assembly.  Hopefully, it will get some other folks with votes on the floor some food for thought.

Do you work for special-needs Timmy and Uncle Phil?  Or do you work for those folks back home?  If you actually talk to the folks back home, they don’t want this.  They know we can’t afford it, and that it will decimate our economy and our society.

The House has passed their version of expansion.  The Senate will approve theirs.  Then, the leaders of the two chambers will meet to work out a compromise.  Each chamber will then have to approve that compromise.  So, folks who have already voted FOR expansion will get a chance to redeem themselves on this issue.