A Chance to Expand Medicaid Rallies Democrats in Crucial North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina, a crucial battleground for the presidential race and control of the United States Senate, has another coveted prize at stake in this election, one that is drawing serious out-of-state money, dominating television ads and driving get-out-the-vote efforts.
Democrats believe they have a chance of gaining control of the State Legislature for the first time in a decade, which would make it possible to expand Medicaid to cover half-a-million more low-income adults here after years of Republican resistance.
The health care issue is paramount up and down the ticket in North Carolina, with left-leaning national and in-state groups using it to motivate Democratic voters — especially those who stayed home in 2016. Many of them belong to the demographic who would become eligible for Medicaid, the free government health insurance program, if the legislature voted to expand it as the Affordable Care Act allows.
Rita Blalock, a cook at McDonald’s who has gone without health insurance for most of her life, is one of them. She said she hadn’t always voted in elections but this week she cast her ballot early for a straight Democratic ticket, in hopes of seeing her two biggest goals realized: getting a higher minimum wage and getting Medicaid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/health/covid-medicaid-north-carolina-election.html
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