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Evidence is Clear: North Carolina Should Say No to Medicaid Expansion

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President at Paragon Health Institute
Brian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and serves as its CEO.

North Carolina legislators have a crucial decision to make—whether to support or oppose the biggest ever expansion of government and the welfare state. Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is fundamentally a question of government’s size and proper role. This should be an easy decision for legislators who value limited government and a safety net reserved for those who truly need public assistance. The fact that Medicaid expansion results in disappointing health outcomes should make opposition to Medicaid expansion an even easier call. 

There’s much that North Carolina legislators can learn from other states that adopted Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion to cover childless, non-disabled, working-age adults. While the expansion was supposed to be limited to people with lower income, states that expanded—enabled by virtually nonexistent federal oversight—permitted millions of people with income well above the eligibility thresholds to enroll. Medicaid expansion states experienced much greater enrollment and spending than they projected. Obamacare has caused the national amount of improper Medicaid spending to soar to a staggering $100 billion a year, per a recent federal government report. There is nothing conservative about such a massive increase in wasteful government spending. 

The full article can be found in The Carolina Journal.

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