ONCE AGAIN: “Expanding Medicaid” = ObamaCare
I seriously can’t understand the logic behind having TWO prominent Republican leaders go public — right in front of a HUGE election — with their desire to expand Medicaid. Gov. Pat McCrory and his DHHS queen Aldona Wos first hinted about it. Senate nominee — and state House speaker — Thom Tillis said he thought it was a great idea for the next legislative session (after he is gone, of course). Now — just days before we all go to vote — Gov. Pat is doubling down:
[…] In addition to shaping a plan for networks of physicians and hospitals to share the risk of rising health care costs, “I’m also trying to figure out what to do with Medicaid and whether to expand that or not, because the feds are offering all this money and yet I’ve got to be concerned with the bureaucracy that could be grown because of that,” McCrory told a gathering of corporate CEOs at a Raleigh country club. “I’m doing that assessment right now.”
McCrory has said for months he’s willing to consider offering Medicaid to more of the working poor after containing costs and improving service to the 1.8 million already covered. His comments came two days after state health secretary Aldona Wos said she soon plans to present McCrory with expansion options.[…]
This pressure to expand medicaid is NOT about reaching the unserved poor. North Carolina has one of the most generous benefits packages in the country. Heck, we even 
cover more stuff than the feds require. A friend of mine in health care here in North Carolina tells me facilities in South Carolina regularly send Medicaid recipients north across the border to take advantage of our,um, *generosity.*
Expanding Medicaid is a key component of ObamaCare. The “plan” from DC is all about killing off private insurance and getting EVERYBODY dependent on the federal government for their health care. At that point, all of us can experience the, um, *pleasure* of visiting the VA or the British NHS.
Going along with this scheme will push our nation further into debt, kill economic growth, and further squeeze already-tightened budgets. Only 27 of the 50 states have gone along with this hare-brained scheme. Gov. Pat needs to grow a pair, stand in the doorway, and MAKE the feds MAKE US expand Medicaid and eat this ObamaCare sandwich.
There is one ray of hope in Raleigh we can still count on:
[…] Outgoing House Speaker Thom Tillis, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said last week that lawmakers and McCrory should consider Medicaid expansion next year. Tillis had emphasized the legislature’s rejection of Medicaid expansion during his GOP primary campaign.
State Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has not changed his position opposing Medicaid expansion, spokeswoman Shelly Carver said in an email. […]
One thing we’ve learned from the Basnight era — if the Senate president pro tem, with a supermajority, doesn’t like something, it DOESN’T HAPPEN. Expanding Medicaid is not about compassion for the poor. It’s about expanding the population of people enslaved by the federal government for years to come.
The biggest mystery in NC is from where does McCrory get his political advice? No one seems to know. No one will admit to it. Republicans have no idea; legislators have no idea. The governor must just make this stuff up on his own. Maybe it’s a virus endemic to all Charlotte Republicans. We may never know.
It’s possible that this is a cynical ploy by McCrory to try to appeal to whatever his consultants think is the political “middle” by talking about how compassionate he is and how he wants to cover medical expenses for the poor, while counting on Berger’s opposition to stop anything from actually happening.
That way, McCrory can look like a “sensible” moderate while not actually having to do anything, policy-wise.
Gov. Pat one and done