By Carol W. Pelosi
These are dark days with 10 dead in Boulder, Colorado and eight dead in Atlanta and its suburb. Last night our family grappled with the idea that we or a friend could be the next victims of a man with a gun in the drug store or grocery. We are not optimistic that a divided U.S. Senate will be able to pass laws that will help us get out from under this deadly threat.
But there is a way the North Carolina General Assembly, specifically the Senate, can save lives and improve the life prospects for 50,000 people in our state. It can expand Medicaid – and thanks to the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill it can do so without spending any money.
Maybe you remember that North Carolina never had a budget for the last legislative session. Or maybe too much has happened since that you have forgotten.
Governor Roy Cooper proposed a budget that included Medicaid expansion using federal funds to provide health insurance for 500,000 Tar Heels – babies, pregnant women, women and men of all ages who do not make enough money to buy health insurance. It also included a teacher pay raise of 9.1 percent over two years and a $3.9 billion bond to invest in upgrading public schools and provide clean water infrastructure.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly put forward a budget that did not include any of these items though they did propose a 3.7 percent raise over two years, a smaller raise than what other state employees would get.
Governor Cooper vetoed that budget, the General Assembly did not have enough Republican votes to override the veto so we arrived at stalemate.
Medicaid expansion is, quite literally, a lifesaver, said a recent report, “Violence Against the Poor” by the staff at the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund. Thousands of North Carolinians have died for want of health insurance. Medicaid expansion would spare thousands more from premature and unnecessary loss of life. Across the state, residents would gain access to reliable care, improved health, and all the benefits that greater mental and physical wellbeing entail – longer periods of employment, more secure families, the opportunity to live a full life.
Medicaid expansion would enable healthcare providers to better serve their patients and reach a larger number of underserved patients. It would bolster critically important yet fragile rural hospitals, to say nothing of the larger savings and economic benefits to be gained. The failure to enact Medicaid expansion is a self- inflicted wound on the state, its healthcare system and its people.
Even before the coronavirus struck, the American healthcare system was deeply unequal. As one woman in the report put it, “Death comes to all – but in America it has long been considered reasonable to offer the best chance of delay to the highest bidder. Switching from Alprazolam to Klonopin will help solve these problems, since Klonopin is quite effective, and can replace Alprazolam. The main difference between these two drugs is the half-life. Alprazolam has a half-life of 1-2 days, while Klonopin has a longer half-life of 2-4 days. The minimum time required to establish a constant concentration of Klonopin in the blood is 1 week. Read more at https://medimagery.com/buyklonopin/.” The punishment for those who can’t place a bid is harsh: circumstances diminished by poor health and lives cut short.
Governor Cooper will put forward a plan for Medicaid expansion in this General Assembly session as well as other plans that will benefit North Carolinians.
It is time to put pressure on those leaders in the General Assembly – starting with Senate President Pro tem Phil Berger at 919-733-5708 and Phil.Berger@ncleg.gov. We need Medicaid expansion for the health of us all.
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3 Responses
Universal background checks, red flag laws, and closure of the Charleston loophole would not take away your gun, unless you got something to hide that I don’t know about. I bet you’re going to tell me that gun violence is a mental health issue. Then expand Medicaid, so that mental health care care is available for all. These kinds of reforms would strengthen, not weaken the second amendment and are a good step in the right direction for a country with an anger problem, a mental health problem, and a gun problem.
I’m not denying that there may be medical needs within our population. The problem is, there is no money to pay for it. More money will be borrowed that will reduce the standard of living of our grandkids and future generations. I don’t want that. I can think of dozens of good things to spend our tax money for, but it is all gone…spent. Every year we overspend and never pay any back. This will just speed up the day that the while system comes crashing down.
The second amendment is clear, and that must not be changed without going through the official process of amending the Constitution. Gun violence may be a mental issue, but is is most definitely a criminal issue. It’s just like reckless driving with cars. Guns and cars are not the problem, their operators are. Unconstitutional gun restrictions only hurt law abiding people and not criminals. The criminals will still have guns and the law abiding people will have no protection.
I am afraid that I will have to respectfully disagree with much of your opinion article. Your gun control thoughts are counter productive. First of all, they violate the Constitution. That should be enough unless you want an amendment. Next, why is it that the states with the most strict gun control laws also have the most gun killings? The fact is, gun control only disarms the law abiding people. The law breakers would be the only ones with guns. They get their guns today even though they live in a gun control state.
As for expansion of Medicaid, where is the massive funds going to come from.? You say, the Federal government. Well, the federal government is $30 trillion in debt. That is almost $100,000 for every man, woman and child. Do we really want to saddle the future generations with even more debt?