Tagged: Healthcare

The President's health care law survived a crucial test in the Supreme Court today. But, experts say the political fight isn't finished.

Asma Khalid: The Supreme Court voted 5-to-4 to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act. That surprised Karen Duqette. She works at the Republican-leaning Civitas Institute.

Karen Duqette: I think this decision is going to have a major impact on rallying conservatives.

Jonathan Oberlander agrees. He's a professor of health policy at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Pertussis, often known as Whooping Cough, is on the rise in North Carolina.

Asma Khalid: Whooping cough sounds antiquated - like something you could catch on "The Oregon Trail." But, it's not just a fictional computer game disease. North Carolina health officials have witnessed a number of recent outbreaks. To date, they've tracked 179 cases. That's already more than in all of 2011.  The State's Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging people to get immunized, no matter how old they are. Zack Moore is an epidemiologist with the state.

North Carolina is one of only four states to have funded its pension obligations over 95%. The latest report from the Pew Center on the States finds that most states are falling further behind in their contributions to public employee retirement funds.

 State representatives have tentatively passed a reworked version of a bill that would move oversight of the state health plan from the legislature to the treasurer's office. 

State employees may have to pay more for their health care next year. A bill in the legislature seeks to plug a budget hole of more than 500 million dollars in the state health plan by requiring all state workers to pay monthly premiums. The measure would also move oversight of the system from the General Assembly to the state treasurer’s office.

Mary O’Neill and Jonathan Stevenson are old hands at lobbying legislators. Last week at the General Assembly, they were ruffling through a directory of legislators’ offices, figuring out where to go next: