North Carolina’s Medicaid reform proposal ignores some highly pertinent facts and is not in the best interest of our state. The plan as presented to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services seeks approval for dividing the state into three regions, with each having a for-profit managed care organization to compete with local provider-led entities. Such a format would be cumbersome to formulate and would add layers of bureaucratic complexity to the Medicaid system in North Carolina.
This terribly divisive proposal ignores the fact that, contrary to rhetoric from our governor and other politicians describing Medicaid as “broken,” the N.C. Medicaid system is nationally recognized as doing well. It has over 90 percent of primary care physicians across the state participating. These physicians and many specialists are supported by nonprofit Community Care of North Carolina, which is a consortium of 14 nonprofit entities covering all 100 counties.
– News Observer