New Medicaid expansion pitch surfaces in N. Carolina House

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina House Republicans are pitching a plan that could authorize expanding Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults, although not right away. Speaker Tim Moore talked Thursday to a legislative committee about a proposal billed as an alternative to a Senate measure that House GOP lawmakers aren’t supporting. The House proposal would direct the state Health Department to assemble a “Medicaid Modernization Plan” that includes expansion and present it a legislative panel by mid-December. The law would direct the General Assembly to vote thereafter to implement all or part of the plan. But there are no guarantees expansion would be ultimately approved.