Last week the House passed a clean bill to keep Medicaid funded ahead of a deadline of October 1st that Gov. Josh Stein’s administration arbitrarily created to cut Medicaid reimbursements. Conservative House leaders have reiterated since August that such a cut in reimbursements by Gov. Stein is both unprecedented and unnecessary.

Now with Gov. Stein’s October 1st deadline here, House leaders have stepped up their criticisms of Gov. Stein’s political games. In a press release Speaker Destin Hall and the House Heath Chairs pointed out that just in November 2024 the legislature passed an additional $377 million for Medicaid rebase, underscoring just how unnecessary Gov. Stein’s actions are.

In the press release Speaker Hall said, “Governor Stein’s arbitrary Medicaid cuts are unjustifiable, clearly intended to manufacture a crisis. The legislature has given funds to sustain Medicaid well into 2026. This breathtakingly cynical move ignores years of precedent where the rebase has been supplemented even later in the fiscal year.”

We are just one year removed from Hurricane Helene ravaging Western North Carolina and thousands of North Carolinians are still trying to rebuild their homes and businesses after that disaster. It’s been nine years since Hurricane Matthew and seven years since Hurricane Florence hit Eastern North Carolina. There are still hundreds of people not back in their homes from Matthew and Florence due to the incompetent leadership of former Governor Roy Cooper. Americans have been hammered by inflation for several years now thanks to the reckless spending in Washington. The people of North Carolina have real crises and natural disasters to deal with. They don’t need Gov. Stein to create a new one, especially not for vulnerable populations in our state.