YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE: Increase Affordable Health Coverage and Care

With record job losses and cuts in work hours, more than 750,000 North Carolinians are now eligible for Medicaid. Do you support expanding Medicaid so that more people can access affordable health insurance coverage?
Demonstrations against police misconduct and brutality and mass incarceration have led American voters to re-imagine what is needed to live in safe and thriving communities. Often, an inability to access care for mental health or substance use disorder leads to arrest and incarceration. Do you support prioritizing access to healthcare to improve public safety?
What would you do to ensure people of color are offered the same access to coverage, health care, and treatment?
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that it’s important for everyone to have access to care and coverage. What do you believe our country should do to ensure universal coverage so that we are better prepared for public health emergencies?

The NC General Assembly has rejected free federal dollars to expand Medicaid since 2013. More than 194,000 North Carolinians fall into the coverage gap, meaning they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to receive a subsidy or financial help on the Marketplace.
Seven rural hospitals have closed their doors since North Carolina lawmakers first refused to expand Medicaid in 2013, leaving rural residents poorly prepared for public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Communities of color have the highest rates of uninsurance, fare worse on health outcomes, and experience greater levels of poverty and toxic social and environmental stressors. The COVID-19 pandemic has showed the disparities in infection and mortality among Black and Brown communities.
In other states that expanded Medicaid, private insurance premium rates are on an average 7 percent lower. When more people are insured, health care is more affordable and accessible for everyone.