NC Republican mayor defies party. Wants Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare

Belhaven, NC Republican Mayor  Wants Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare

Many have been saying this would happen. As reality meets rhetoric, reality ultimately wins. Sometime one must bring reality into the fold kicking and screaming. A few months ago I wrote the article ‘When does lying about Obamacare become immoral and evil?’ The simple answer is now. Waiting till people die makes it effectively murder.

Republicans are starting to feel the pain of their intransigence and spite. A few months ago a self-described Republican Fox News addict from North Carolina urged Americans to sign up for Obamacare. Yesterday Belhaven, North Carolina Republican Mayor Adam O’Neal flanked by Moral Monday’s leader Rev. William Barber urged his fellow Republicans to take the Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare.

“I am a Republican. I am standing amongst a bunch of Democrats,” Mayor Adam O’Neil said. “No Party is right all of the time. We all make mistakes.” The mayor went on to say that he was proud to team up with Rev. Barber and other Democrats to change course. He wants Republicans in North Carolina to take the Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare.

“The path the legislators are on right now has already caused stress on our hospitals; and especially rural hospitals,” Mayor Adam O’Neil said. “Our rural hospitals could hardly survive in the past due to the reimbursement for indigent care. Without Medicaid Expansion the reimbursements are falling and hospitals like the one in my hometown are on the brink of possibly even closing…. If you do not have critical access hospitals, people needlessly die. That’s a fact.”

Mayor Adam O’Neil is correct. One need just remember Charlene  Dill’s story as a vivid example. There are studies that quantify how many will die in states that refuse the Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare. But it need not be. Mayor Adam O’Neal sums it up well.

“I hope they reconsider and decide to focus on federal reform too meet our concerns and don’t let our rural hospitals suffer and our poor suffer,” Mayor Adam O’Neal said. “Don’t let our hospital close. Rural citizens dying shouldn’t be soldiers of our legislature’s defiance.