The state Senate on Monday advanced a flurry of bills, all of which now go to the House for consideration. Here are some of the details:
Defunding Planned Parenthood
Under one bill the Senate passed, Planned Parenthood would be removed from the state’s Medicaid program, costing it a key funding source.
Paige Johnson, the group’s regional president and CEO, said the law as enacted would harm the state’s poorest and most medically vulnerable residents.
“House Bill 192 simply means that cancers will go undetected, STIs will go untreated and people will not be able to get the birth control they need to plan their families and their futures,” Johnson said. “And this will be on you.”
Sen. Amy Galey, an Alamance County Republican, said she fears Planned Parenthood misdirects funds to promote abortion-related services. She also criticized Planned Parenthood for donating to Democrats who support abortion rights.
“Planned Parenthood is not a good-faith provider of health care services to women,” Galey said. “I think that they should not be receiving state funds in any way, shape, or form.”
Galey said patients can get many of the services Planned Parenthood provides from county health departments and Federally Qualified Health Centers.
In Cumberland County, health officials have partnered with Planned Parenthood to tackle some of the highest STI rates in the country. Democratic Sen. Val Applewhite said she worries the bill would hinder her community’s ability to address the issue and create patient backlogs.
“The director of the Department of Health, her hands are full,” Applewhite said. “There’s just not enough services in Cumberland County.”
Galey said the county could still partner with Planned Parenthood so long as it doesn’t do so with Medicaid funds.
Medicaid Holdup
North Carolina health officials are sounding the alarm that the state needs to fully fund the Medicaid rebase—the amount of money needed to keep providing current service levels—by October 1. Nonpartisan economists and legislative staff disagree on the amount needed, with estimates ranging from $190 million to $319 million.
“I am willing to compromise at $190 million with a commitment to reevaluate in January where expenditures are trending six months into the fiscal year,” Gov. Josh Stein wrote in a letter to lawmakers last week. “At that point in time, we can work together to determine if the funding is sufficient, additional funding is needed, or provider cuts will need to be implemented.”
On Sunday, the House and Senate released plans aimed at helping sidestep looming Medicaid cuts.
Good news, right? Everyone’s happy, right? Not so fast.
The Senate’s proposal ties additional Medicaid funding to chamber priorities that have been a sticking point in budget negotiations with the House this year: $103.5 million for a children’s hospital project and $105 million for a rural health partnership between East Carolina University and UNC Health.
The House proposal doesn’t include funding for the children’s hospital or the ECU-UNC partnership.
The Senate passed its version and isn’t returning for additional votes this week, so House leaders must decide whether to accept the Senate’s version or leave Raleigh without a resolution.
Reading between the lines, inaction will prevail.
Rep. Brenden Jones, a top House budget negotiator, tweeted on Monday, “The House stands ready to pass a clean Medicaid bill.” (House Speaker Destin Hall’s office confirmed to The Assembly that the chamber won’t take up the Senate’s bill.)
The Senate isn’t due to return for votes until October 20 at the earliest, so Medicaid service cuts are likely next month.
“It is frustrating,” Republican Sen. Kevin Corbin of Macon County said of the impasse. “I wish we could get things done. It’s part of the process. All I would say is anyone out there who has ever served on a church or a civic committee of five people or seven people and you can’t agree on what color carpet to put in your church, this is a committee of 170. It’s even harder.”
Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch of Wake County unsuccessfully offered an amendment that would have removed provisions of the bill other than the Medicaid funding.
“We are going to see Medicaid die by a thousand cuts because we don’t do what we need to do to fund it,” Batch said.
More Senate-Passed Bills to Watch
These measures also now go to the House:
- Last week, RDU announced Aer Lingus will launch a direct flight from Raleigh to Dublin in April. Senators voted to have taxpayers help fund this new initiative to the tune of $1.5 million over the next two years. For folks who are curious, the first flight leaves on April 13. And in the past 24 hours, the price has more than doubled to $547.
- The same bill includes $35 million for development plans at the Lenovo Center (home of the Carolina Hurricanes and NC State men’s basketball).
- The Senate voted to bar cities from adopting ordinances that prevent residents from displaying an American flag or North Carolina state flag. The measure comes in response to a dispute between the city of Greenville and Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis.
- An updated adjournment resolution increases the number of days lawmakers could hold votes this year. After this week, there are only three voting sessions scheduled. But now there will be four days of votes in each session: October 20-23, November 17-20, and December 15-18.
- An appropriations bill includes an important provision that would increase transparency in the budget process. If House Bill 389 were enacted, lawmakers would be named and listed alongside the provisions they requested. (Oddly enough, neither Senate GOP leader Phil Berger nor Appropriations Chairman Ralph Hise could recall which lawmaker came up with this provision.)
- A separate appropriations bill appropriates $65.5 million in disaster relief and recovery in response to Tropical Storm Chantal, which caused excessive flooding in the Chapel Hill and Mebane areas earlier this summer. Berger said the House has agreed to take up the bill.
