Alicia Pender lived a fairly normal life before contracting COVID-19 in 2020. She was a travel nurse working in central North Carolina and was active, taking vacations and handling her own home repairs.
People are also reading… "Being sick has caused me to almost lose everything I have worked my life for," Pender said. Sixty-six clinics cover about 82,000 people in North Carolina, Cook said. It’s a drop in the bucket of the number of people uninsured in the state. More than eight years after states were allowed to expand Medicaid coverage, North Carolina has started taking steps in that direction. For years, Republicans opposed Medicaid expansion, but some have changed their tune.
“Until recently, all Republican leaders were entirely opposed to Medicaid expansion,” Democratic Rep. Robert Reives. “Many are seeing what has been clear for years: Medicaid expansion is a good deal and the right thing to do for North Carolina.” “We have a shortage of providers in North Carolina. Where are going to go?” Cook said. “Medicaid does not equate to access. It doesn’t. We hope it does, but it doesn’t necessarily mean access.”