Governor Stein Urges Congress to Protect North Carolinians’ Health Care and Oppose Cuts to Medicaid Funding

Governor Josh Stein today sent a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to change course on proposed federal cuts to the Medicaid program and laying out what’s at stake in North Carolina.   

“Medicaid is a lifeline for more than 3 million North Carolinians and disproportionately serves our rural population,” said Governor Josh Stein. “I strongly urge Congress to oppose cuts to Medicaid funding so that hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians do not lose their health care and our rural health care system is not devastated.”

North Carolina’s Medicaid program contributes at least $28 billion to the state’s economy every year and is crucial to the wellbeing of the state’s most vulnerable people, including children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. In 29 mostly rural counties, 40 percent or more of the population depends on Medicaid for health care. Over the past 11 years, North Carolina’s Medicaid program has been efficiently managed with no cost overruns.

In March 2023, North Carolina’s General Assembly passed Medicaid expansion with overwhelming bipartisan support. Since it passed, Medicaid expansion has enabled more than 640,000 North Carolinians to access affordable health care, and it has stabilized struggling rural hospitals to maintain health care access throughout the state. One of the proposed cuts would lower the enhanced federal match for the expansion population, which would trigger an immediate end to Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, leaving 640,000 North Carolinians without health care coverage immediately. 

Any reductions in Medicaid funding would jeopardize access to critical health care for these groups, putting their well-being and the stability of the health care system at risk, including a loss of $6 billion in federal funds to health care providers.

Click here to read the full text of Governor Stein’s letter to Congress.