PRESS RELEASE
President Pro Tempore
Senator Phil Berger
919-733-5708
2007 Legislative Building
Raleigh, N.C. 27601
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Amy Auth, 919-301-1737
January 30, 2013 Shelly Carver, 919-301-1744
January 30, 2013 Shelly Carver, 919-301-1744
Senate Republicans Reject Obamacare Expansions
Decline to pursue state-based health exchange, Medicaid expansion
Raleigh, N.C.
– North Carolina
Senate leaders introduced legislation Wednesday to opt out of
participation in several costly provisions of the federal Affordable
Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Senators
Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson), Harry Brown (R-Onslow) and Bob Rucho
(R-Mecklenburg) filed Senate Bill 2 to exempt North Carolina from
establishing a state-based health
insurance exchange or a state-federal partnership exchange.
The
bill also directs the N.C. Department of Insurance to return unspent
taxpayer funds awarded by the federal Department of Health and Human
Services earlier this month
to create a state-federal partnership exchange.
“Obamacare
was forced on us against our will by the federal government, and they
should shoulder the burden of implementing it,” said Sen. Apodaca. “Any
claim that North
Carolina would ‘control’ this program is nothing more than an
illusion.”
Senate
Bill 2 also rules out expansion of the North Carolina Medicaid program.
In its 2012 decision on Obamacare, the U.S. Supreme Court exempted
states from the federal
mandate to expand Medicaid eligibility. Based on the court’s ruling,
North Carolina has the authority to opt out of expansion.
Costs
for North Carolina’s existing Medicaid program have increased
significantly in recent years. In 2012, the General Assembly was forced
to fill a surprise Medicaid
shortfall that totaled more than $500 million. Recent figures from the
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services indicate that an expansion
of the program would add
hundreds of millions of dollars in additional state costs to North Carolina’s Medicaid budget through 2019.
“Senate
Republicans are committed to ensuring every North Carolinian receives
the highest quality health care and outcomes,” said Senate President Pro
Tempore Phil Berger
(R-Rockingham). “Saddling our citizens with the enormous costs of a
new federal bureaucracy and entitlements is simply not the way to
achieve this goal.”
Background:
Under
Obamacare, each state must have in place a health exchange where
individuals and small businesses, which are now mandated to have
insurance, can purchase
health care coverage. There are three options: a state-run exchange, a
state-federal partnership exchange and a federally-run exchange.
Senate leaders have spent months evaluating the implications of each type of exchange.
In
November 2012, former Gov. Beverly Perdue prematurely declared her
intent to establish a state-federal partnership exchange – three months
before the deadline for the
state to make this declaration – while at the same time applying for
$73.9 million dollars in federal grant funding to set up the new
government program.
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