Caring for Others: Closing the Healthcare Gap in North Carolina (Center for Leadership Excellence)

This session will focus on the impact that North Carolina’s failure to close the health insurance coverage gap through some sort of Medicaid expansion has on the physical, emotional, and financial health of the people of our state and on how people of faith can become involved in advocating for a North Carolina solution.

The “Coverage Gap” refers to those who make too much to qualify for the state’s current Medicaid program (or otherwise don’t qualify because they are adults without dependents) but make TOO LITTLE to qualify for a health insurance premium subsidy on the federal insurance marketplace. North Carolina is one of the 12 remaining states that has not enacted a solution to close the gap. Currently, there are approximately 600,000 North Carolinians caught in the coverage gap without access to affordable health insurance. Those caught in the gap include frontline workers, nursing home assistants, farmers, fishermen, small church pastors, and emergency service personnel and many parents.

Presenters will provide a brief history of the Affordable Care Act and how the coverage gap was created, a profile of those who are caught in the gap, the adverse health and financial impacts of failure to close the gap, as well as the economic burden placed on our healthcare and public safety systems. Presenters will also outline a potential solution for North Carolina and its benefits to the state, and will provide tips and tools on how individuals and communities of faith can become an active voice for change on this issue.