Corbin should vote for Medicaid expansion
To the Editor:
I read the March 30 article “Senator Corbin again leads health care push.” The article makes clear that North Carolina needs elected officials to support actual Medicaid expansion that would provide health care insurance to people who earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to qualify for a marketplace subsidy. That is about 600,000 North Carolinians. The N.C. General Assembly has voted multiple times against Medicaid expansion.
Please do not be confused. The partial expansion that Sen. Corbin spoke of is not Medicaid expansion. Why cover some when we can cover all? The latest COVID relief package will bring $1.7 billion into our state over the next two years if we expand Medicaid. With Senator Corbin’s plan? Nothing.
A statewide poll found that 64 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of unaffiliated voters, and 83 percent of Democrats support closing the Medicaid gap. Saying “I don’t think there’s the votes in the House or Senate to get that” indicates that Sen. Corbin does not know his constituents. Rural North Carolinians are dying. We need Sen. Corbin to vote for what we need, not what he thinks.
Ann Hibbard
Waynesville
