Hundreds of thousands in North Carolina will be added to Medicaid rolls this week

By GARY D. ROBERTSON and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Full Medicaid coverage starts this week for hundreds of thousands of uninsured adults in North Carolina. More than 600,000 people ultimately are expected to qualify, and roughly half will be automatically enrolled starting Friday. North Carolina elected officials agreed this year to accept Medicaid expansion as part of the federal Affordable Care Act established in 2010. The program will provide the government-funded health insurance to adults ages 19 to 64 who make too much money to receive traditional Medicaid, but generally not enough to qualify for subsidies that help pay for private health insurance. Medicaid coverage means they’ll be able to get checkups and prescription drugs with little or no out-of-pocket expenses.