Tagged: Medicaid

North Carolina’s Republican Lawmakers are sticking by conservative principles early in Gov. Pat McCrory’s first term. Last week, he signed legislation cutting unemployment benefits. The move was an attempt to pay back debt owed the federal government earlier.

And this week, legislators voted for and sent along a piece of legislation that would reject a federal option to expand Medicaid.

State lawmakers have passed a bill that would provide emergency funding to maintain care for group home residents across the state.

Legislators in the Senate voted unanimously to approve House Bill 5 yesterday. It will allow group home residents and patients in special dementia units to remain where they are for now. The bill specifies that a 40 million dollar pot of money that's already being used for adult care home residents can also be used to help group home residents.

North Carolina's new Secretary of Health and Human Services says she's committed to helping residents of group homes find a place to live at the end of the month. About 14 hundred people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities are no longer eligible for Medicaid reimbursements for personal care services.

The outgoing Governor, Bev Perdue, allocated one million dollars from a rental assistance fund to keep remaining group home residents in place until the end of January. But everyone's aware that money will run out, says Secretary Aldona Vos.

About 2,000 people with severe mental illness are facing eviction from group homes at the end of the year. That was the message from group home residents and staff and mental health advocates who rallied at the state Capitol yesterday. A change in Medicaid rules means residential facilities for the mentally disabled will lose some federal funding at the end of the year. State lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year providing replacement funds for adult care homes...but group homes were left out.

North Carolina's delegates to the Republican National Convention are headed home, after their big week in Tampa. Delegate John Steward from Union County joined thousands of fellow party members at Mitt Romney's nomination acceptance speech last night. He says he likes that Romney is not backing away from cutting federal spending.

John Steward says, "I really liked the fact they're not backing off the Medicaid and Medicare - the only way to save it is to reform it and they're not backing off of that."