The new battle lines over Medicaid expansion

Sen. Berger favors Medicaid expansion because the landscape has changed. But reasons for opposition have changed, too.

Medicaid expansion will again be a major political fight in 2023, but the battle lines have shifted significantly. For years, the issue pitted Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper in favor of expanding the government insurance program, with a conservative majority in the General Assembly against it.

Now, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger is an advocate of expanding Medicaid, though the Republican caucus still isn’t convinced, particularly in the state House.

But more has shifted than just the politicians. The state of health insurance has changed a lot, too — and a major argument for expanding Medicaid has already quietly been taken off the table. Here’s the latest lay of the land.

Photo by Gene Gallin on Unsplash

A brief overview of Medicaid in North Carolina

Some 2.75 million North Carolinians are currently enrolled in Medicaid, the federal health insurance program that pays healthcare costs for many categories of low-income people. This number has roughly doubled over the past decade. Under M…