RALEIGH, N.C. — Medicaid expansion took another major step forward Wednesday, leaving it one vote, one signature and, perhaps most importantly one entire state budget away from reality in North Carolina.
According to a report from WRAL, Wednesday’s procedural vote on the deal passed 94-22, a massive show of bipartisan support after years when the General Assembly’s Republican majority opposed this long-time Democratic priority.
The state Senate voted the same bill through last week, 43-2.
There was no debate Wednesday in the House. Two members, a Republican bill sponsor and a Democratic supporter, gave brief speeches, and the process took roughly 10 minutes, belying the billions in federal funding expansion would draw down for the state’s health care industry.
Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them working adults, would become eligible for taxpayer funded health insurance under this deal, contained in House Bill 76.
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