NC Edges Toward Medicaid Expansion As GOP Guv Meets With Obama

Gov. Pat McCrory, speaks at Wilmington International Airport in Wilmington, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. The North Carolina Transportation Department said Tuesday that North Carolina is getting $6 million in fede... Gov. Pat McCrory, speaks at Wilmington International Airport in Wilmington, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. The North Carolina Transportation Department said Tuesday that North Carolina is getting $6 million in federal grants to improve train service. The Wilmington stop was one of several around the state on Wednesday introducing the "25-Year Vision for North Carolina" transportation plan. (AP Photo/The Star-News, Matt Born) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT MORE LESS
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North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) says he will discuss expanding Medicaid under Obamacare when he meets Tuesday with President Barack Obama, the Associated Press reported, another sign that a big GOP-controlled state is slowly coming around on the program.

McCrory wants “to be allowed to devise a North Carolina solution to health care for families,” he told a group of business leaders Monday, per the AP. He will meet with Obama and the state’s two Republican senators on Tuesday.

“I’ve said from the beginning, even last year, that I will not close the door to keeping that option available,” McCrory said.

The governor has routinely left the door cracked open to expand Medicaid under the federal health care reform law, though he has rarely been specific about what kind of conservative plan he would be interested in pursuing to do so. His predecessor, Democrat Bev Perdue, had been hamstrung by the Republican legislature, and McCrory hasn’t prioritized the program since taking office in 2013.

McCrory’s latest overture comes as other deeply conservative states like Wyoming are moving steadily toward Medicaid expansion and even major holdouts like Texas have shown public signs of softening.

Nearly 320,000 low-income North Carolinians would be covered under the program.

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