Legislative Update for 03/09/23
March 9, 2023
A decade-long stalemate over Medicaid expansion appears to be coming to an end. On Thursday, House and Senate Republican leaders announced that they had reached an agreement to expand Medicaid in North Carolina. The agreement was said to have been reached in final negotiations that ran late Wednesday night into Thursday morning. At the time of the press conference, legislative leaders had not discussed their agreement with Gov. Cooper, or their respective caucuses. “We wanted to go ahead and get it out there … and get the details to the public, because it’s something we can all be very proud of,” said Speaker Moore regarding the timing.
The bill will include some Certificate of Need (CON) reforms and a provision to authorize HASP, a federal reimbursement program for hospitals. The compromise language “will eliminate certificate of need for behavioral health beds and for chemical dependency beds. It will raise the replacement equipment threshold to $3 million and index that number to inflation. It will increase the threshold for diagnostic centers to $3 million and index that to inflation.”
One measure that was noticeably missing from this agreement was the SAVE Act, a measure that would repeal the requirement for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to obtain a physician’s signature on a “collaborative practice” agreement in order for them to practice independently in the state. This provision was included in the Senate Medicaid expansion package passed last session.
Read the full report here.
Legislative Update for 02/28/23
February 28, 2023
Speaker Moore told reporters this week that the House plans on having their version of the budget out on April 6th, right before Easter and the General Assembly’s spring break the week of April 10th. It appears to be a favorable time to be working on the budget with the news of a projected $3.25 billion surplus for the state this year, however the surplus is non-recurring, one-time money and not recurring money which can be used for a wider variety of funding priorities.
As in years’ past, there are two topics that remain top priorities in both chambers that still prove difficult to fully agree on when it comes down to specifics: raises and tax cuts. It’s clear the chambers have already begun negotiations around the amount of tax cuts for this biennium. “The conversations I’ve had with leadership in the House, with members in the House, leads me to believe that the House is prepared to move forward with further reductions in in our taxes,” Senate leader Berger said. “We’re still early in the session, we’ll see how that materializes.”
Read the full report here.
Legislative Update for 02/21/23
February 21, 2023
Last week, the North Carolina House of Representatives made history by passing a bill that would expand Medicaid. While the House has passed a bill to study expansion previously, this bill would actually set it in motion and have North Carolina join the vast majority of states who have expanded. The hold-out chamber from last session did not seem to have adequate support in the Republican caucus to pass this measure along with the Senate previously, according to Speaker Moore. Now, it seems the tide has changed. This bill received bipartisan support and was approved by the chamber by a vote of 92-22.
The bill was amended to include a pilot program that would provide forgivable loans to eligible medical and nursing students who choose to practice full-time in rural areas. It was also amended to include language that would authorize work requirements as a condition of participation in the Medicaid program if there’s ever any indication that the federal government would authorize those requirements. “This is a part of history, and we need to advance this bill, move it forward so we can begin some serious discussions with the Senate on how do we make this happen for the state of North Carolina and for people who benefit from this,” primary sponsor Rep. Donny Lambeth told his colleagues on the House floor. Now, it’s the Senate’s turn to respond. The Senate has indicated that they have other priorities they wish to couple with Medicaid expansion, so it is likely that the Medicaid expansion proposal from the House will be amended on the Senate side. This long saga continues.
Read the full report here.
Legislative Update for 02/14/23
February 14, 2023
The legislature has a full week planned ahead, with 22 Committees meeting just today alone. The legislature couldn’t let the Parents Bill of Rights bill have all the fun; this week they are expected to roll out other high-profile contentious bills, including the House’s Medicaid expansion bill and various bills that would loosen the state’s restrictions on firearms. The House and Senate have yet to reach a consensus on a Medicaid expansion proposal, so the House version that will be debated this week will almost surely vary from the Senate’s proposal from last session which included other controversial health care reforms. Along with that, Republican legislators are expected to move firearm bills this week. Ever a partisan issue, these gun bills will likely garner a lot of attention and opposition from various groups and Democratic legislators opposed to less restrictive access to firearms. Appropriations Subcommittees will also continue to meet this week to review various areas of the budget and find out about the many programs being funded by the State. The House will be presenting their budget proposal first this session.
Read the full report here.
Legislative Update for 02/07/23
February 7, 2023
Session is gaining momentum as more and more bills are steadily being filed and committees are beginning to hold their first meetings of the biennium. Of course, it’s not the General Assembly’s style to slowly ease into session. Legislators started with a bang this week with the session’s first contentious bill making its way through committees, the Parents’ Bill of Rights bill.
Read the full report here.
Legislative Update for 02/01/23
February 1, 2023
The legislature is up and running for 2023’s long session. While most of Wednesday afternoon was spent handing out gavels to new Committee Chairs, bills also began to be filed. There were 20 bills filed in the House and 18 in the Senate on the first day. The very first bill filed in the Senate was Sen. Rabon’s NC Compassionate Care Act, Senate Bill 3, which would allow the use of medical cannabis in our state. This bill passed the Senate during last year’s short session, but was stalled in the House. “There is support for something where there’s doctors involved, and where there’s some type of controls and pharmaceutical involvement,” Speaker Moore told reporters when asked about the House’s stance this year. “There’s some support, but we’ll see. There’s a chance it may happen.”
The medical cannabis bill was not the only hot topic bill that was filed right out of the gate. Democrats held a press conference to discuss their filing of an abortion bill that would codify abortion rights under the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision into state law. While abortion policies are likely to be changed this session, this bill is unlikely to get much traction in a Republican-led General Assembly. Republicans are expected to file a more-restrictive abortion bill during this session.
Read the full report here.
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