ICYMI: FGA’s Sam Adolphsen on “Taking Care of Iredell” Show
- BY Sarah Coffey
Earlier this week, Sam Adolphsen, policy director at the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), joined North Carolina Representative Jeffrey McNeely’s weekly show on WSIC, “Taking Care of Iredell.” Adolphsen joined to discuss the challenges facing Medicaid and reasons why states should focus on preserving resources for those who need it most by not expanding Medicaid.
Medicaid is stretched thin with bloated enrollment, and the truly needy are the ones who suffer the most—expansion will only make the problem worse.
“Not to be lost in any discussion about expanding Medicaid is that North Carolina is already extremely generous in what’s provided to folks who are in need,” said Adolphsen in the interview in an explanation of how Medicaid expansion would not help the uninsured. “…There are 320,000 people in North Carolina right now that have that free, federally funded private plans… if you expand Medicaid, by law they have to give that plan up and go on the government program… which would really be a shame.”
It was also pointed out that while hospitals often support Medicaid expansion, they’re also the ones that will be negatively impacted by lower reimbursement rates: “The question for hospitals is that those rates of reimbursements from that private plan [Silver plans] are much better than Medicaid rates. So why do they want to push people off these silver plans and into Medicaid? It’s not helping the uninsured, it’s just shifting people out of private coverage back onto the government.”
Listen to the full interview here (starts at 24:00).
