Months after manufacturing a crisis over Medicaid, Gov. Josh Stein’s administration is reversing course on their unprecedented, unnecessary cuts to Medicaid reimbursements. North Carolina House leaders repeatedly pointed to previous administrations working with the North Carolina General Assembly to provide funding for Medicaid rebase. The House even passed three bills that would have ended this manufactured crisis, to keep their promise to North Carolinians who depend on the program in spite of Gov. Stein’s efforts to generate a political crisis.

Now ten weeks after the arbitrary deadline Gov. Stein created of October 1st, he reversed course and announced the cuts will no longer be in effect.

Senior budget writer and health chair Rep. Donny Lambeth said in a press release, “Fortunately, the Stein administration finally recognized the negative impact their unnecessary rate cuts had on providers and some of the most vulnerable patients they care for. Holding provider rates stable, as the House has pushed for the last four months, is recognition that patients do not need to be worried about their healthcare access in the future. We have much more work to do to continue improving care at a reasonable and fair cost.”

Rep. Lambeth, a retired hospital executive, raised alarm bells in August about Gov. Stein’s cuts stating, “In my 12 years of working on health issues, I have never seen the department jump to tell providers they will face major cuts when legislators’ oversight committees have not met yet.”

Speaker Destin Hall shared this morning on X following Gov. Stein’s announcement “[Gov. Stein] tried playing political games with people’s lives and it backfired. North Carolina deserves better.”

We agree.