April 16, 2019
RALEIGH, N.C. – Nursing groups from across NC are calling on legislators to act now to provide affordable health insurance to more than 500,000 North Carolinians who are currently uninsured. As nurses, we see firsthand the devastating economic and health outcomes that affect people who fall in the coverage gap. Closing the gap will also help rural hospitals keep their doors open. With so many uninsured North Carolinians living in rural areas of the state, rural hospitals often struggle to compensate for patients who can’t afford to pay for their care.
The chance to provide a safety net for hundreds of thousands of North Carolina’s most vulnerable communities is rare, and we strongly feel that the North Carolina General Assembly should take this opportunity seriously. Many groups have called for different strategies to close the coverage gap, but only one politically-viable option has been put forward this session, and we are proud to stand behind HB 655, the NC Health Care of Working Families Act.
The day HB 655 was introduced, Rep. Donna White (R-Johnston), one of our fellow nurses and a primary sponsor of the bill, said, “We really need this bill. It is the bill of a lifetime for anybody that’s in healthcare.”
It takes courage for legislators to push for this type of bill, and we salute Rep. White and her primary co-sponsors, Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth), Rep. Josh Dobson (R-McDowell), and Rep. Greg Murphy (R-Pitt), for prioritizing this issue.
The nursing organizations signing on to support this legislation include:
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Chris Cowperthwaite, Manager of Communications and Outreach, at chriscowperthwaite@ncnurses.org or 919.821.4250.
