Letter from our Chair, Doug Robinson, M.D.

Dear members and friends of Health Care Justice●NC,

On the rare occasion I’d take my kids or now my grandkids to Chuck E. Cheese, I’d introduce them to Whac-A-Mole, a 1970s arcade game where plastic moles pop up randomly, and you knock them back into their holes with a mallet. Maybe it’s my short attention-span personality, but I’ve always liked that game and, for me, it's become a metaphor for our advocacy journey toward comprehensive healthcare reform. The “Triple Aim” of our work for 2025 as established by PNHP is to advocate for the end of the profiteering of Medicare Advantage, improve Traditional Medicare and ultimately achieve national single-payer healthcare. Unfortunately, in recent years, we’ve encountered a slew of nasty moles as we’ve worked toward single payer. Fun fact: a group of moles is called a labour of moles, but I thought slew was easier to understand. Recent moles included Medicare Direct Contracting and its revamped evil twin ACO REACH. Both were clumsy attempts by the CMS Innovation Center to insert corporate profiteers between Traditional Medicare and its beneficiaries. ACO Reach will hopefully soon be defunct after being whacked by groups like ours. The deceitful annual Congressional letter from Medicare Advantage (MA) lobbyists to CMS got pounded so hard last year that it received only 46 signatures. Hopefully there will be fewer signatories this year. Finally, comments to CMS from groups like PNHP and HCJ led CMS to hold the line last year and not increase the MA payment rate from their initial proposal despite intense industry pressure. That took some robust mole whacking.

But this is no time to put down your mallet. New moles have popped up in our backyard and demand our immediate attention. We now have a vaccine science denier as the new head of HHS, a proponent of “Medicare Advantage for All,” soon to be head of CMS, and a Republican Congress that's setting its sights on decreasing Medicaid funding to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Ironically, it was just last year that we rejoiced after lobbying by the NC Justice Center and groups like ours helped finally move the North Carolina General Assembly to expand Medicaid. The Access to Healthcare Options bill extended lifesaving care to over 640,000 of our family members, neighbors and friends, including older people, children, pregnant women and veterans. Unfortunately, our celebration is experiencing a significant mole infestation. The recently passed GOP House budget resolution asks the Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees Medicare and Medicaid, to “find $880 Billion in savings.” If Medicare is spared, as expected, most of the cuts will fall on Medicaid. They could include per capita caps, institution of work requirements, and reducing the rate at which the federal government matches states’ Medicaid spending. Some expansion states, like ours, even have a “trigger clause” that reverses Medicaid expansion if the Federal match falls below a specific limit (90% in NC). The Medicaid program and its recent expansion are crucial to the health of thousands of the most vulnerable in our state. Over 1.4 million North Carolina children receive health care coverage through Medicaid, including nearly 49% of kids in rural counties. The program covers 37% of births and 61% of nursing home stays in North Carolina. Many of the 200,000 North Carolinians living with an intellectual or developmental disability rely on Medicaid. Medicaid expansion funds have helped to keep our economically endangered rural hospitals open.

Calling your senators and representatives may be the best way to make your voice heard on this and other issues. One call may not do much, but our collective pressure can. Staffers log every call, the legislator keeps track, and an issue's call volume can influence them. So call your Senators and Representative today, and do so frequently in the days to come. Tell them how critical Medicaid is to North Carolina and why there should be “no cuts to Medicaid.” Hopefully, working together, we’ll knock that mole out for good! 

Below is a list of your Senators' and Representatives' office phone numbers.

Doug Robinson, M.D.

Senator Thom Tillis: (202) 224-6342

Senator Ted Budd: (202) 224-3154

Representatives:

District 1    Don Davis                   (202) 225-3101

District 2    Deborah Ross            (202) 225-3032

District 3    Greg Murphy             (202) 225-3415

District 4    Valerie Foushee        (202) 225-1784

District 5    Virginia Foxx              (202) 225-2071

District 6    Addison McDowell    (202) 225-3065

District 7    David Rouzer             (202) 225-2731

District 8    Mark Harris                (202) 225-1976

District 9    Richard Hudson        (202) 225-3715

District 10  Pat Harrigan              (202) 225-2576

District 11  Chuck Edwards         (202) 225-6401

District 12  Alma Adams              (202) 225-1510

District 13  Brad Knott                 (202) 225-4531

District 14  Tim Moore                 (202) 225-5634

Not sure who your Representative is? You can find out here:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.