Gov. Stein called the General Assembly’s inability to pass a budget “irresponsible and callous” as 3 million residents face health care uncertainty.
RALEIGH, N.C. โ North Carolina will restore Medicaid provider rates to pre-cut levels following court decisions favoring patients, but the program still faces a funding shortfall that could deplete resources by spring, Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday.
The state is returning provider rates to their Sept. 30 levels after months of cuts triggered by the General Assembly’s failure to allocate additional funding for the program, which serves more than 3 million North Carolinians.
“Medicaid is a lifeline for the more than 3 million North Carolinians across the state,” Stein said at a press conference alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai and health care advocates. “It is the difference for those people between being able to go to a doctor’s office to get better and being denied critical care because it is too expensive.”
The rate restoration comes after patients and providers filed lawsuits challenging the cuts. Courts have ruled in favor of patients in the first two cases, with three more already filed and additional legal actions pending.
“DHHS can read the writing on the wall,” Stein said. “So the department is restoring all provider rates to where they were on Sept. 30 before the cuts took place.”
The General Assembly received repeated warnings from the Department of Health and Human Services over six months about an impending Medicaid funding shortfall, Stein said, claiming that both legislative chambers agreed on the necessity of additional funding and even on the amount needed, but failed to pass legislation.
“Instead of providing the funding that both chambers knew was necessary, they allowed unrelated budget disputes to get in the way of doing their jobs,” Stein said.
North Carolina remains the only state in the country whose legislature has not enacted a budget, according to Stein.
The rate restoration does not solve the underlying funding crisis. Without additional appropriations, Medicaid will exhaust its funds in spring, nearly six months into the fiscal year.
“Without additional funds, Medicaid will run out of money in the spring, which would be absolutely devastating,” Stein said. “Not only to Medicaid patients, but to the entirety of our health care system.”
Stein characterized the legislature’s inaction as “irresponsible and callous” and said the forced cuts have caused “real and damaging impacts on people’s health and well-being.”
“Their failure is irresponsible and callous, and it’s infuriating because all of this was absolutely unnecessary,” he said. “All they had to do was their most basic and important job, pass a budget.”
Medicaid serves one in four North Carolinians, according to the governor’s office. The program provides health care coverage to low-income residents, including children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities.
Stein called on legislators to return to Raleigh to address the funding gap.
“I urge the General Assembly, come back to Raleigh and do your job,” he said. “Make Medicaid whole, pass a budget, and join us in standing up for people’s health care.”
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