Medicaid expansion hits one year mark in NC, advocates, state health officials touts success

NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) -- This week marks one year since Medicaid expanded in North Carolina, making hundreds of thousands of people eligible for healthcare they couldn't previously afford.

On Wednesday, Governor Cooper said nearly 600,000 North Carolinians had already enrolled in year one -- roughly doubling the state's projections.

Healthcare advocates say those numbers speak to the overwhelming need for expansion in North Carolina, especially in rural communities. Those eligible under expansion are living below the poverty line but making too much to have previously qualified for Medicaid -- a phenomenon known as the Medicaid gap.

"An incredible impact for healthcare for them, when they didn't have any before -- they couldn't afford it," said Rachel Vaughters, a healthcare advocate in Raleigh.

Vaughters has spent the last six years helping North Carolinians get coverage, working with many who -- before this year -- fell into that gap.

"They're so close to being covered. And this expansion has just created opportunity for them to finally get coverage where they were on that cusp," she said.

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According to data from the NCDHHS, more than one-third of the newly eligible enrollees are from North Carolina's rural communities.

They also say in the past year, 3.8 million prescriptions have been filled through Medicaid expansion, and roughly $58 million in dental claims are covered.

"Medicaid expansion was always about the hard-working North Carolinians who desperately deserved access to healthcare," said Cooper at an event marking one year since expansion went live.

Cooper said the broad support for expansion that exists now speaks to the program's merit.

"It's a story that took many twists and turns, but through all of them -- we knew that we could never, ever give up," he said.