For 10 years, advocates for expanding Medicaid to cover able-bodied adults have told North Carolinians to just look around the country. When so many other states have taken the plunge, there’s no need to guess what’s around the corner.
They’re right. North Carolina should look before it leaps.
Just look at Missouri, the most recent state to go to battle over expansion. A very slim majority of voters there supported Medicaid expansion in a ballot initiative last year.
But the measure’s language didn’t provide any funding mechanism. Nor did it spell out to voters that expansion means expanding the program to include able-bodied adults, rather than expanding existing benefits for the kids, individuals with disabilities, and seniors already eligible for Medicaid.
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