INSTITUTE INDEX: As more Southerners benefit from it, Medicaid expansion faces congressional death threats
North Carolina health justice advocates held a "die-in" at the state capitol back in 2015 to dramatize the death toll from the state's rejection of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. While incoming Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has pledged to expand Medicaid, congressional Republicans are now planning to repeal the ACA, creating uncertainty for millions of new Medicaid beneficiaries. (Photo by Phil Fonville.)
Date on which North Carolina's newly sworn-in Gov. Roy Cooper (D) announced he'd take executive action to expand Medicaid, the public health insurance program for the poor, under the Affordable Care Act: 1/4/2017
Year in which North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature passed a law barring the executive branch from expanding Medicaid under ACA, complicating Cooper's efforts: 2013
Number of North Carolinians who could benefit from expansion of Medicaid, which in that state is currently available only to children, people with small children, or those who are pregnant, disabled, or in a nursing home: up to 600,000
Amount of investment Medicaid expansion would bring to North Carolina: $2 billion to $4 billion
Number of good-paying new jobs it would create: 20,000 to 40,000
By continuing to reject Medicaid expansion, which its residents are already paying taxes for, estimated amount of federal funds North Carolina would forfeit through 2020: $15 billion
According to a Harvard Medical School study, number of North Carolinians who are dying each year because of the state's refusal to expand Medicaid: 1,100
Total number of states that have expanded Medicaid to date: 32
Of those 32 states, number in the South: 4*
Month in which Louisiana, under newly elected Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, expanded its Medicaid program under ACA: 7/1/2016
Number of Louisianans who had enrolled in the program by September: 305,000
Date on which House Republicans said Vice President-elect Mike Pence was uniquely qualified to dismantle the ACA: 1/4/2017
Year in which Pence, as Indiana's governor, expanded Medicaid in his state under the law: 2015
Number of Indiana residents who gained access to Medicaid as a result: 320,000
Date on which Donald Trump, then running for Republican presidential nomination, tweeted that he opposed cuts to Medicaid: 5/7/2015
Number of times Trump has changed his opinion on the ACA since announcing his presidential bid: 8
Date by which House Republicans say they hope to send President Trump an ACA repeal bill: 2/20/2017
Number of Americans who stand to lose health care coverage if ACA's Medicaid expansion provision is scrapped: 11 million
Should Congress repeal Medicaid expansion, amount West Virginia alone stands to lose in federal funding from 2019 through 2023: $5.8 billion
Proportion of Americans who support allowing states to expand Medicaid under ACA: 8 in 10
Proportion of Trump voters who do: 2/3
* Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.