Research Paper on "Pending Legislation"

Research Paper 8 pages (2266 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Adam Searing, a health policy expert at the N.C. Justice Center, an organization which actively advocates for the poor and opposes the Republican-driven legislation, has expressed his professional appraisal that low-income citizens who fail to meet the qualification standards for Medicaid coverage will be among those who are most negatively affected. According to Searing, this already vulnerable segment of the state's population "will continue to get expensive care in emergency rooms or limited care in overextended community health clinics (and) they will get half the care a person with insurance receives and get sicker and die earlier than those insured" (Frank, 2013). A consortium of Democratic lawmakers echo this sentiment in a letter sent to their colleagues across the aisle, asserting that "rejecting Medicaid expansion would strike a devastating blow to working families in our state and to the North Carolina economy as a whole" before concluding that "nearly 500,000 North Carolinians who are currently uninsured could gain access to affordable, quality health care through expansion, unless their state government stands in the way" (Price, 2013). Clearly, there are several hundred thousand people throughout the state of North Carolina who, through no fault of their own, will now be denied access to affordable healthcare and insurance coverage simply because their own elected representatives have decided to hold their own political interests above the well-being of the voters who sent them to the statehouse.

The passage of Senate Bill 4 would immediately impact the delivery of healthcare services across the state, preventing healthy individuals from accessing preventative care and dooming the sick to the constant struggle of balancing their finances against their future recovery. Doctor Adaora A. Adimora, who serves as a professor of Medicine at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and vice chair of the HIV Medicine Association in Arlington, VA, expresses her support for North Carolina's participation in the ACA's Medicaid expansion in a recent op-ed published by the Charlotte Observer. Dr. Adimora states describes how she routinely treats "patients with infectious diseases, including those infected with HIV" before revealing that "too many don't receive the care they need until they are seriously ill when treatment is less effective (and) their lives are often needlessly shorter and hospital bills higher than if they had the regular access to care that Medicaid provides" (2013). Even as Republican governors in traditionally conservative states such as Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, and New Mexico continue to adopt their own measures supporting the expansion of Medicaid coverage, ostensibly choosing to preserve the provision of healthcare services over the tallying of political points, North Carolina charges headlong into the unknown. Hospitals, health centers, community clinics and private practices throughout the state have been nearly unanimous in their view that the passage of Senate Bill 4 will be detrimental to their ability to provide patients with the basic level of medical attention they deserve. As Dr. Adimora expresses the situation so eloquently in her op-ed piece, "expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income adults trying to get by on less than $15,000 a year will mean greater access to lifesaving medical care for nearly half a million North Carolina residents who need it but cannot afford it today" (2013), which is why the legislation contained within Senate Bill 4 represents such a devastating prospect for the state's most vulnerable citizens.

References

Adimora, A.A. (2013, February 19). Medicaid expansion needed in north carolina for many reasons. The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved from http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/02/19/3865023/medicaid-expansion-needed-in- north.html

Dalesio, E.P. (2013, February 12). House panel rejects medicaid expansion in nc. Associated Press/WRAL. Retrieved from http://www.wral.com/house-panel-rejects-medicaid- expansion-in-nc/12099212/

Frank, J. (2013, February 14). N.C. bill leaves thousands with few health insurance options. The Miami Herald. Retrieved from http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/14/3234002/nc- bill-leavs-thousands-with-few.html

Jackson, D. (2012, March 12). Many southern republicans say obama is muslim. USA Today. Retrieved from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/03/many- southern-gopers-say-obama-is-muslim/1

McCrory, P. State of North Carolina, Office of the Governor. (2013). Governor mccrory recommends healthcare implementation strategy. Retrieved from website: http://www.governor.state.nc.us/newsroom/press-releases/20130212/governor-mccrory- recommends-healthcare-implementation-strategy

Price, D.E.U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the 4th District of North Carolina. (2013). Reps. To ncga: Rejecting medicaid expansion would hurt n.c. economy, devastate working families. Retrieved from website: http://price.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3338:reps-to- ncga-rejecting-medicaid-expansion-would-hurt-nc-economy-devastate-working- families&catid=100:press-releases

Weissmann, J. (2012, June 28). The most important part of today's health care ruling you haven't heard about. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/the-most-important-part-of-todays- health-care-ruling-you-havent-heard-about/259134/ READ MORE

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