After Expanding Medicaid, Governor Cooper Incentivizes Hospitals to Relieve Medical Debt for Millions of North Carolinians

RALEIGH: After expanding Medicaid last year, Governor Roy Cooper is now working to incentivize hospitals to eliminate billions of dollars in medical debt for North Carolinians. On Tuesday, Governor Cooper hosted a roundtable in Winston-Salem to discuss how relieving medical debt could benefit millions of North Carolinians.

Read more about the Governor’s work to relieve medical debt below:

Greensboro News & Record: 'Life-changing': With Medicaid expansion a reality, Cooper sets sights on medical debt

Richard Craver, July 24, 2024

Being little more than five months from ending a second and final term in office is not deterring Gov. Roy Cooper from going forward with another major healthcare initiative.

After leading Medicaid expansion into becoming a reality, Cooper is pushing and prodding the state’s healthcare systems to help in reducing the $4 billion in medical debt owed by North Carolinians.

Cooper held a roundtable Tuesday at Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem to discuss and praise the congregation’s remarkable efforts at relieving medical debt through the Debt Jubilee Project. Cooper said the focus on reducing medical debt is a natural next step after securing Medicaid expansion — with more than 505,000 enrollees to date — since “both insured and uninsured face medical debt.”

Jonathan Kappler, chief of staff for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said the relief that many new Medicaid enrollees have felt has been tempered by their existing medical debt. He added that they may opt to not seek new care in order to avoid adding to their medical debt “and that their medical debt follows them wherever they go.”

Cooper said part of his willingness to lead the reduction effort comes from the stories of North Carolinians who told him of their feelings of being ashamed, overwhelmed and weighed down by their medical debt burdens.

Read the full article here.