#ncga: House GOP caving on ObamaCare, medicaid expansion
Who NEEDS a Democrat majority in Raleigh when you’ve got this pack of RINOs? 
Two of the Democrats’ top campaign promises in 2016 — repeal of HB2 and Medicaid expansion — are being hand-delivered by REPUBLICANS:
Four Republicans in the state House have filed a bill to extend Medicaid health-insurance coverage to more adults, and to charge hospitals to help pay for it.
It’s the first time prominent North Carolina Republican legislators have sought to add adults who now don’t qualify to the government health insurance program.
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid since the Affordable Care Act provided that option – removing millions from the ranks of the uninsured – but North Carolina under Republican control has been among the holdouts. GOP political leaders have been skeptical of whether the federal government would follow through on its promise to cover the bulk of the costs, and have demanded reforms to how money is spent before expansion.[...]
Adding people to Medicaid who NOW don’t qualify. The program is already a mess — rife with fraud and abuse. And we’re going to throw MORE people and MORE money into the pot ??? (It appears the hospital lobby put the right amount of money into the right campaign coffers.)
Here are the culprits:
“I want to do whatever I can to increase access to care for rural areas of our state,” Rep. Josh Dobson of McDowell County said. “I believe the bill will do that.”
Three of the House Health Committee chairmen are co-sponsors: Reps. Donny Lambeth of Winston-Salem, Greg Murphy of Greenville and Dobson. Rep. Donna White of Clayton is the fourth sponsor. Lambeth is a former hospital administrator, Murphy is a medical doctor, and White is a nurse.[…]
Y’all remember Josh Dobson? He’s the one who spent money from his campaign fund to travel
overseas on “General Assembly business”. (He must be the one in charge of foreign policy.)
Here’s some food for thought from a 2012 study on North Carolina’s Medicaid system:
- […] A small program? Try this experiment: Walk down the street and think of every fifth person as a Medicaid recipient. That’s because nearly one in five North Carolinians is enrolled in the program.
- Limited? Imagine that over eight years one city the size of Greensboro and another the size of Durham were added to North Carolina. Well, that’s how many people were addedto the Medicaid rolls in one recent eight-year span.
- Impoverished? Someone with a $490,000 house, jewelry, a good retirement account, a nice car and a business can still qualify for long-term care under Medicaid.
- And good care? Care may be good quality – if you can get it. Poorly designed cost-cutting measures have significantly reduced the availability of care to Medicaid patients.[…]
Of the wide variety of medical services covered by North Carolina’s Medicaid program, some are mandated by the federal government — but many more are optional. As of 2009, North Carolina covers all but two optional services allowed by Medicaid – one of the more generous programs in the nation.[6] […]
I’ve talked with medical professionals in North Carolina who KNOW that medical pros in other states are advising patients to go to North Carolina — because the Medicaid benefits are alread so much better.
The Raleigh Republicans are following the lead of the DC Republicans. THEY really don’t mind the big government monster known as ObamaCare.
Stuff like this will set us up for long-term unmanageable debt at the state level. *Kinda like the magic they’ve worked in DC.*
Ladies and gentlemen, it appears the statism monster has also swallowed Raleigh’s once Grand Ol’ Party. WE ARE ON OUR OWN.
Greg Murphy posted on this site that he did not support the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. The suckweasel lied through his teeth.
When the vacancy for this seat was filled and the candidates interviewed, Murphy told the district GOP executive committee that enacting the Obamacare Medicaid expansion was his main reason for seeking the seat. When asked about Common Core, he did not even know what it was. Murphy later tried to walk back his statement on the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, but the word was out on him. He danced around the subject on comments on this site, trying to change the subject to other parts of Obamacare, but finally when asked point blank on the Medicaid expansion part of Obamacare, he finally claimed here to be against it. LIAR!
Murphy is a real piece of work generally. In addition to the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, another Obama policy he has sponsored was Michelle Obama’s absurd ”food deserts” boondoggle. Murphy also backs Obama policies on open bathrooms and green energy. He is a Fake Republican and needs a primary.
Murphy was also illegally appointed to the House. The District chairman called a meeting on short and defective notice to try to head off other candidates, which was partially successful as only one other candidate came forward in the short time period (significantly less than the time required by the Plan of Organization). She claimed to conservatives that she was doing it to head off a candidate backed by Henry Hinton, but that was a joke since Murphy WAS the candidate backed by Henry Hinton. The NCGOP General Counsel of that time warned the legislative district chairman (Ginny Cooper) that the meeting would be invalid but she went ahead with it anyway, rammed through Murphy, and submitted the name. At this point, Dallas Woodhouse took charge of the matter and started assuring Pitt County media, including Hinton’s radio station, that ”the doctor will be seated”. Woodhouse submitted the paperwork on the nomination to the governor without the opinion of the party general counsel that the meeting and any results of it were invalid.
Murphy is a full blown liberal Obama Republican and should be high on conservative target lists to remove in the primaries.
All accurate. But it was Pitt County Chairman not District Chair. Also it was the 4 members of the Pitt Ex Comm that lived in that district. A fifth informed the County Chair he could attend any evening but the one she was proposing. The member needed time for a home closing I think. Didn’t matter. There was genuine concern that ex comm member in question was as supporter in the past of Ashley Bleau.
The district chair was on hand to protest the process and was removed from the room.
In this case, it is my understanding that all of the district is within Pitt County, so County Chairman Ginny Cooper was functioning as the legislative district chairman for that meeting.
It is also my understanding that the district chairman you refer to is the Congressional District chairman, who under the PoO is responsible for legislative candidate recruitment. She was the one kicked out of the room and her warning that Cooper’s meeting was illegal was disregarded..
The whole thing was pushed through in a rush so that other candidates would not have time to get in the race or if they did would not have time to campaign, and also to not give voting members time to find out where Murphy really stood on issues. That is why Cooper gave a notice for the meeting far too short to be legal under the PoO.
Greg Murphy’s appointment to the vacant House seat was a fraud and a travesty, and Dallas Woodhouse has his fingerprints all over it.
Odd. I was given to understand that the congressional district chair was as not only as horrid as the County.chair, but also was lockstep with whatever the gang at State wants.
At the time the Congressional district chairman got involved, she was following the completely correct position of the party General Counsel (who was NOT the current one), and once Woodhouse got involved backing the shananigans, she quietly exited any involvement.
Murphy’s predecessor, Brian Brown, who now works in Tillis’ office, has been in the hip pocket of Henry Hinton. A couple of months before Brown made it public he was leaving, Murphy, who had never given to a GOP legislative candidate before, suddenly gave a four figure contribution to Tim Moore. Odd coincidence, that! Brown, Hinton, and Murphy were apparently working on this scheme to put Murphy in Brown’s place for some time. It is not totally clear who was pulling Ginny Cooper’s strings, but it is likely that Moore was pulling Woodhouse’s.
Now Hinton is pushing himself for the University Board of Governors. There is little doubt that his liberal flunky Murphy is there doing all he can on that project.
This type of corrupt power play should not be happening in the GOP.
The titles are County and District Chair. Legislative chair isn’t a term a know. The replacement is voted on by sitting ex com members of the counties represented. There were 5 eligible I believe to vote.
District Chair Kim West attempted to stop the appointment process. Pitts legal counsel said it was in violation it appeared but he would defer to Ginny Cooper, County Chair. Ginny had the room cleared, and 4 of the 5 ex Com members selected Dr. Murphy. There was at least one protest Amongst the 4 voting members about the proceedings and she was overruled. They all voted for Greg. At least 2 were closely connected to Brian Brown. Ashley Bleau never had a shot. I don’t think he was supposed to find out about it.
Ginny had multiple motives, one included encouraging Dr. Murphy not to run against Sen. Pate in a primary. Then the there was the Henry thing. Also, I believe she was convinced he would be a very good pick being a doctor. Who knew his work would interfere with his attendance?
Read the PoO on legislative districts. Most are not organized until there is a legislative vacancy, although occaisionally they organize otherwise.
That business about Murphy running against Pate in a Senate primary was a smokescreen. Murphy’s hefty contribution to House Speaker Tim Moore a couple of months before the vacancy became known was a clear sign that his intentions were always the House, not the Senate. Especially when he had never before contributed to a Republican at the legislative level.
It is too bad the ex. com. member who was frozen out did not find a conservative attorney to file a pro bono lawsuit as the sham of a nomination would have been tossed out if he had.
I did not know about Murphy’s attendance problem. That would give more ammunition to a primary challenger. Conservatives need to come up with someone.
Todd, aren;t you from Pitt County and a former GOP Congressional District vice chairman? Why did this Ashley Bleu not primary Murphy last year or find another conservative to do so? Was the obvious Ginny Cooper problem resolved at your county convention last month?
If Murphy’s attendance issue is egregious, then this is the sort of thing that can be used to eviscerate a politician. That type of primary ammunition that is readily available can be helpful in recruiting a primary opponent.
Ethics panels really need to take a microscope to legislators sponsoring bills that benefit their employers, like this one of Murphy’s. There are so many ways an employer can provide payola for such special interest legislation that have deniability as bribes, such as pay raises, bonuses, and promotions, all allegedly for job performance that have nothing allegedly to do with pushing the employers issues in Raleigh. It is a relationship that is prone to corruption.
I must admit I do not read this Blog often but was told about its contents and I am happy to address the issues and the inaccuracies stated. First of all there is a marked need to help the working poor in our state. The folks are our farmers, our clergy and our fishermen. They cannot afford insurance at today’s present rates and do not meet the qualifications for Medicaid. As I have been told countless times the main issues that people had with Medicaid Expansion are the following (please feel free to correct me if I am wrong) 1. It came from Obama 2. It presented a current liability to our state to pay a portion of it which may have increased in the future. 3. It allowed those who were not working or, more importantly, were not seeking work, to receive benefits . 4. It also failed to require any ‘skin in the game’ to those receiving benefits. If one would take a few minutes and read the bill, you will find that EACH of these issues have been addressed. 1. there is NO state money going to help our working poor. It will be the $800M that NC tax payers now pay each year that goes to other states and return it to NC benefiting those in NC (esp rural hospitals which are at risk of closing) creating jobs and taking care of the working poor. The patient premium and an assessment on hospitals 2. There IS a work requirement where one has to be working or provide verification that one is actively seeking work. 3. There are monthly premiums (yearly total of 2% of ones gross yearly income) that are required and if one does not pay in, they will be cut out of the program 4. One has to be involved in Health and Wellness programs to keep benefits–weight control, BP monitoring, tobacco cessation
If anyone has specific objections here, I am happy to here of them. These people are not freeloaders. They are our working poor and are not looking for handouts. As a physician I see these folks every day–they delay their care because they have no insurance resulting in more costly and less effective care thus costing you and I much more in the long run.
Don’t read it often ???? That’s funny. I hear from all kinds of folks around your neck of the woods that you fret and moan to anyone who will listen whenever we mention your name. (Your creeping-to-the-left voting record has earned you a lot of mentions, and will likely earn you many more.)
Not meant to impugn you Clifton. Meant no disrespect. Honestly between my reading of legislative materials, emails and keeping up w my medical journals, I have little time for other reading. My apologies if it came across otherwise.
Rep. Murphy, You previously denied on this site that you supported the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, after you danced around other aspects of Obamacare. Will you now admit that you were not being truthful then?
Our taxpayers are groaning under the weight of paying for various giveaway programs, and here you want to put more burden on our taxpayers. That is after you sided with the radical homosexuals against bathroom privacy and religious liberty, and sponsored Michelle Obama’s nutty ”food deserts” boondoggle. Pitt County conservatives need real representation, like they once had with Dr. Henry Aldridge in the State House, but it looks like it will take a primary to achieve that.
Also how can you show your face in public when you introduce legislation like this Obamacare Medicaid expansion that will put mega dollars into the pocket of your own employer, Vidant? That does not pass the smell test.
First of all I am not employed by Vidant. I am in private practice and run a small business. Vidant is where I have privileges to operate but they do not employ me. You fail to address the substance of my response. As I stated above this is not ObamaCare Medicaid Expansion. There are marked differences to help the working poor. If you have an issue with any of the specifics, I am happy to address them.
It is a giveaway program that will burden the taxpayers, and is just a dressed up version of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, like putting lipstick on a big. You are a Big Government Republican, and this is just as absurd as the bill you sponsored to enact Michelle Obama’s ”food deserts” nonsense. Conservatives believe in cutting government down to size. As Thomas Jefferson said, ”the government that governs best, governs least”. You seem to follow more the Marxist construct of ”from those according to their ability, to those according to their need/”
And you were blatantly anti-Christian in voting to repeal _HB 2 and adding a law that allows local governments to discriminate against Christians beginning in 2020.
When you push new giveaway programs, you are no better than Nancy Pelosi. You are not on the level on the fact that this program will cost our state taxpayers money, and if it is like the rest of Medicaid, it will also cost county taxpayers money. And don;t give us that tired old liberal big spender line about ”free federal money”. We need to end the Obamacare Medicaid expansion nationally, not grow it;
You have still not responded about why you were not truthful on your position on this issue in your earlier comments on this site. From what you told the legislative district executive committee, you
sought this seat as essentially a johnny one note on this issue.
Whether or not Vidant has bought your practice yet, like they have so many medical practices, you are still clearly Vidant’s creature. And if you are gaining personally from this bil in a practice you still partly ownl, instead of your employer, it just makes it a bigger conflict of interest and it makes you even more corrupt. Shameful!
John,
I am happy to address your concerns. Obama’s Medicaid Expansion program required payments from states. It also gave benefits to people who were not working or even seeking work. It also made no requirement for participation in Healthy Living Programs. It did not require participants to pay premiums as a requirement for participation. Our program has just the opposite. Without rehashing everything from my original post, I truly do not see our bill as Medicaid Expansion. Yes we are trying to pull back the federal dollars that we lose each year but that is where the similarities end. So to your point that I was being deceitful when I said I would not expand Medicaid, we are not expanding Medicaid. We are helping our farmers, clergy and fisherman amongst others. I am not sure how you can say our program and Medicaid Expansion are one and the same. They are not.
Next as for my ‘Anti-Christian’ vote on the HB2 repeal…if you will refer you to Matthew 22:36-40 for your reflection. I have had MANY clergy of many denominations, once they took time to read the bill and reflect upon what it really did, that have thanked us for doing it. Many of whom were against any repeal before whatsoever. If we did not repeal and replace HB2 on our own terms, when it got to the 4th Circuit, the HB2 lawsuit would surely have been settled in the favor of liberals and then we would have literally NOTHING for protection. As we evidence today that that strategy worked as the Trump Administration took the case away from the 4th Circuit and failed to let them rule on it because HB2 no longer exists.
As for my ‘food desert’ promotion, if I were not to promote healthy living for our state, I would not be serving my state as the only physician in the GA. I am sorry you disagree with that one small component but hopefully you can agree with me on the much greater work I have done on the Opioid Crisis, Suicide Prevention and access to Rural Health Care.
As for the implication that I will somehow benefit from the working poor getting an insurance product, I would ask that you rethink a few things. For one the rates I would receive from this product are probably going to be similar to Medicaid rates where I receive $0.14 on the dollar. I will actually LOSE money on those patients where now they are required to pay the full dollar amount (we reduce it greatly if they make an effort to pay). So in essence, if I didn’t care about farmers going bankrupt because of health care costs, it would actually BENEFIT me to keep the status quo. Yet, having done Medical Mission work for the last 30 years on my own dime, it would be not acting on behalf of the working poor that would keep me up at night.
To your point of putting ‘mega dollars’ in Health Care system pockets, again I refer you to the language of the Bill. Hospitals are required to pay an assessment to help be one of the three components to pay for this initiative. Yes when they pay some in, they will surely get some back to replace monies that they previously would not have received. But I would rather have the hospitals paying for this program to benefit the working poor of our state rather than our state’s taxpayers.
I think I have addressed all of you concerns about this issue. Please feel free to ask specific questions if I have failed to do so.
Happy Easter to you all
You gloss over that this is just another liberal entitlement foisted upon the backs of the taxpayers. You cannot put enough lipstick on that pig to make it anything other than a pig. You should just admit that you were not truthful in your earlier comments on this site.
As to your HB2 repeal vote (and sponsoring an earlier repeal bill) you betrayed the safety and privacy of our women and girls and made it open season on Christians by liberal local governments beginning in 2020. You gave those local governments a club to beat Christians with that they never had before. That is ultra liberal and inexcusable..
Keep up the good work GM! Haters going to hate.
I am sad to see Representative White on that list. I had hoped she would be conservative, but I guess not. That means two demorats to vote for in the next election since Jackson voted for the HB 2 repeal screw job.
Rep. Beverly Boswell is a nurse, and she is NOT on this list of sellouts to Obamacare. Hooray for Beverly!
Three of the four sponsors are carrying water for their employers or former employers who will profit by this bill. I call that conflict of interest and unethical, and I call it corrupt. I’ll bet if you dig deep enough on the fourth, some conflict of interest will emerge there, too.
Sickening!
The interesting place will be the Senate if one considers the history of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion issue. Gov. McCrory and Speaker Tillis were going wobbly on it, and Senator Berger ran a bill through the Senate rejecting the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, forcing the hands of Tillis and McCrory to come on board with the rejection; If this rape of the taxpayer is stopped this time, the Senate will be the key, just as it was last time.
It is also interesting to remember that in the last election, the Senate’s consultants sent out postcards in competitive districts pledging that the Republicans would stop the Obamacare Medicaid expansion and blasting Democrats for supporting it.
With the flip Berger and the GOP Senate just did on HB2, I cannot imagine them doing another one this soon on another huge high profile issue that would anger the base bigly., Berger looks like he wants to run for higher office, given the mailings he has been doing, so getting on this bridge to nowhere would not be a smart move for him.
:If this makes it through the House, I suspect the Senate will knock it in the head
I’d post each photo with ” Corrupt” block-letter stenciled across each. Brief caption under each, and keep it in a prominent place online. Turn ’em into screen savers. But, it is up to their constituencies to do something about it. We elected these subspecies. Maybe a few ought to be cited on a Zumwald Zone, and folks directed where to download for continuing reference. Boles and Tillman would be appreciative of the fleeting pressure release. Where are our two wards of the County on Medicaid? As always this is an information campaign that must be waged to educate voters and to permanently brand these RINOs for what they truly are.
It is really neat to get four Republicans to sponsor a bill to achieve one of my two top legislative objecitives, the expansion of Medicaid, so we can put even more people on the government dole. As my inspiration, Karl Marx used to say, ”from those according to their ability, to those according to their need”. My modern inspiration, George Soros says the same thing in other words. George would be so proud of these four. I don’t even need Democrats. I can get progressive Republicans to do my bidding.
Two of these same guys also voted for my other top legislative priority, the repeal of that nasty HB2. We all know that sexual deviants rights should come before those of NC’s women and children. Murphy and Lambeth were right there voting on the progressive side of that one, too.
Greg Murphy was best of all. He actually sponsored bills to enact both of my key legislative priorities, repeal of HB2 and expanding Medicaid as President Obama wanted.
As long as I can get these wonderful progressive Republicans advancing my agenda, I really do not need Democrats.
Why bother voting Republican? They have deceived us.
What a disappointment to see these four “conservative Republicans” HaHa take this stance, especially the Great doctor Greg Murphy. When legislators go drink from the pork trough, the slime gets all over them and they are forever stained. Shame on you all!!!!
Sad to see this happen. Where are real conservatives??? Caving on everything…need teaparty candidates to do whats right.
A lot of the problem is that the party apparatus which not too many years ago ran all the legislative candidate recruitment but they got lazy and abdicated it to the legislative GOP caucuses, which really means the leadership. The type of candidate whom legislative leaders want is often a different breed of cat from those whom local party activists want. The way to solve this is for the party apparatus to heavily re-engage in legislative candidate recruitment, but we need a state chairman dedicated to grassroots action to do that, and similar stances down through county and district chairmen.
who will pay for this?? haha, the hard working people. It is one thing to help people, but really is this wise?
Shared misery is not the answer. To imply that people who “have” haven’t worked hard to get it, is a false liberal train of thought. I’m the best judge of who I may, or may not, donate my money to. Health care is not a right. Sounds cold, but it just isn’t. Want to make health care more affordable, get government out of it. Has been, and always will be, the answer.