Beware, Sheep in False Clothing
I am in that “time of life” when my mind observes multiple eras as part of my individual experience.
Legislative News by Nelda Holder –
I’m old enough to have seen things come and go.
Unfortunately, in that context, I am currently lamenting the exit from our North Carolina stage of simple good sense in the form of progressive legislation.
Yes, I’m old enough to remember when “progress” was not an expletive and moving forward did not mean taking five steps back. And so it is that my skepticism meter has been rising sharply this legislative session.
Hark! The news-herald angels are singing the praises of the Republican legislative leadership as they (finally) move toward instituting full Medicaid for our residents. House Speaker Tim Moore (R) and Senate President Pro Temp Phil Berger (R) announced a “deal” on Thursday, March 2, after House Bill 76 (Access to Healthcare Options) passed in the House and moved to the Senate.
Never mind that for a full decade since assuming the legislative majority, this party has unreasonably denied this important – and sometimes lifesaving — assistance to hundreds of thousands of uninsured people in this state.
Here are some of the laudatory headlines:
- “After years of backward motion, NC Republicans take a few steps forward” (The Charlotte Observer, March 5, 2023
- “600,000 times yes!”, Winston-Salem Journal, March 5, 2023
- “Medicaid expansion deal reached between House and Senate” (The News & Observer, March 2)
- “Medicaid expansion breakthrough announced by NC legislators” (Asheville Citizen-Times, March 2)
And here’s an opinion piece that fillets the subject: “The GOP’s epic defeat on health care is laid bare in North Carolina” (The Washington Post, May 3). It offers a cogent rundown on the 2014 Affordable Care Act’s healthcare expansion opportunity during the Obama administration, and how it came to be that about two dozen states, GOP-run, decided to refuse this help extended to their people. These numbers have dwindled in the years since as one-by-one, Republican-led states have admitted the wisdom of the no- or low-cost medical care expansion program, and ACA repeal energy has dwindled. North Carolina’s acceptance into the program would leave only 10 states off the list of participants.
The cogent editorial in the March 5 Winston-Salem Journal) offers this perspective on what the state of North Carolina itself has to gain by moving into the program: some 600,000 North Carolinians would begin to receive medical coverage, including 14,000 veterans; the federal government will pay 90% of the cost, with a hospital tax paying the rest – costing the state itself nothing. We can expect the creation of some 37,000 new jobs, more access to mental health care and addiction treatment, and a reduced burden on emergency departments.
And yet it has taken 10 years to get to just say “Yes!” to something so important to so many of our citizens.
The same editorial points out that their own Forsyth County’s “Medicaid proponent,” Rep. Donny Lambeth (Republican), has been a steadfast supporter – among what is estimated to be 64% of the state Republican representatives (the paper cites a recent American Cancer Society poll for that number). What game, then, has the leadership of the party been playing – not only with 600,000 state residents in need of health care, but with the majority of their own party?
It seems, to me, a strange sort of leadership. So pardon me if my celebration of this not-yet-sealed deal is somewhat muted by skepticism – and a tinge of 10-year-old outrage. The guts of the bill contain some twists and turns, including tampering with the current “certificate of need” rules regarding potential hospital competition. I shall hope, however, that the outcome is real progress in serving the people of this state with expanded access to healthcare.
All that, and still there are machinations on the part of national legislative leadership, and with Republicans in today’s U.S. Congress, who have a plan to cut $2 trillion from the popular national program budget.
Pot and pans
Hark! This same leadership is also cashing in on another item popular with the public, which is the approval of medical marijuana (Senate Bill 3) – but in a limited fashion. Titled the NC Compassionate Care Act, the bill begins its legislative findings with this:
“Modern medical research has found that cannabis and cannabinoid compounds are effective at alleviating pain, nausea, and other symptoms associated with several debilitating medical conditions.”
Bingo! My aging golden retriever even benefitted from this form of pain alleviation. But the legislative wording for this bill is extremely careful to point out that its intend is to make “only those changes to existing North Carolina laws that are necessary to protect patients and their doctors from criminal and civil penalties,” not to change penalties for nonmedical use.
Thus, the bill goes to great length to define and restrict this legalization, and ultimately lists 15 specific “debilitating medical conditions” to which the law applies, including cancer, epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, ALS, Crohn’s, sickle cell anemia, Parkinson’s, Post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple sclerosis, cachexia (wasting syndrome), severe/persistent nausea related to end-of-life care for homebound or bedridden, terminal illness, a condition that has led to hospice care, other serious condition as provided for by the Compassionate Use Advisory Board under G.S. 990-113.113.
That Compassionate Use Advisory Board is designed to have 11 members with the Governor appointing five medical specialists, one qualified patient intending to use cannabis, and the parent of a qualified patient. The House speaker and president pro temp of the Senate would each appoint two additional board members.
A long list of regulatory mandates and requirements follows, and there is a final section specifically categorizing “marijuana” as “all parts of the plant of the genus Cannabis,” excluding such things as mature stalks or their fiber, and also excluding hemp or hemp products.
Six down, two more to go
Gov. Roy Cooper gave an enthusiastic State of the State address on March 6, 2023 before a joint session of the General Assembly, touting successes on a statewide front and repeatedly returning to a theme of pride in the state’s advancement – coupled with pride in the backbone of its people.
Cooper, who is the state’s 75th governor, has served six years in office during a tumultuous time in the history of the state and the entire country. He was at the helm during the vast storm of the Coronavirus disease – a reassuring presence and cheerleader (to most) during the many press conferences with his familiar team of Mandy and Mike – Dr. Mandy Cohen, then-Secretary of Health & Human Services and Michael Sprayberry, then Director of NC Emergency Response.
But before that vast challenge, he took office when businesses had begun shunning this state in the wake the infamous “bathroom bill” (the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act) produced by the Republican-led legislature in 2016 – the bulk of which was repealed through negotiation between the new governor (Cooper) and legislature in 2017. Cooper reminded his audience last night that following the path of “culture wars” came at a high price then, just as it would in the current legislative session.
But the bulk of the governor’s comments were straight-up praise for a state he has served for many years, as a legislator first elected in 1986, then as attorney general beginning in 2001 until moving into the governor’s mansion in 2017. (To my knowledge – and to his full credit — he is the only governor to have a First Pets of North Carolina page on Facebook.)
Follow your legislator
If you watched the State of the State, surely you heard something you’d like to discuss with your very own Buncombe County legislators. Contact is easy. Their General Assembly web pages are available at www.nceg.gov, or you can click their individual names below.
BUNCOMBE COUNTY: Rep. Eric Ager (D-114), Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-115), Rep. Caleb Rudow (D-116), Sen. Warren Daniel (R-46), Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-49)
Nelda Holder is the author of The Thirteenth Juror – Ferguson: A Personal Look at the Grand Jury Transcripts.