Gov. Stein identified pay raises and Medicaid funding as the most urgent issues. However, state lawmakers have yet to act.
Mission Hospital nurses and their patients are in the path of several runaway trains at once. But Mission’s struggles are not just about a single hospital: This is a national problem.
Advocates argue that at a time when families are struggling to afford premiums, prescriptions, and medical bills, North Carolina needs leaders who will protect and expand access to care. Whatley’s record shows support for policies that would raise costs and weaken health care security for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.
Compared to 2025, Medicaid enrollment in North Carolina has gone down 22%, with 761,457 people enrolled this year. According to NC Health News, more than 200,000 North Carolinians lost their affordable coverage since the sunset of enhanced premium subsidies.
Seventy of North Carolina’s seventy-eight rural counties are considered medical deserts due to a shortage of primary care providers. And while 33% of the state’s population lives in rural areas, only 12% of physicians in the state practice there. Twenty counties in the state don’t have a single pediatrician, while another twenty don’t have a hospital.
After the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits and growing uncertainty surrounding Medicaid, more North Carolinians are finding themselves without coverage. For those who’ve lost health insurance, free clinics and providers offer help in uncertain times.
North Carolina is a prime feeding ground. More than half the counties in NC have measles vaccination rates below what medical experts say is needed to ensure optimal community wide protection. On Wednesday, NC health officials announced a new text messaging system to alert the public to any potential exposures.
“When people in crisis do not get help in time, the consequences can be tragic,” Gov. Stein stated during the order’s announcement. The order points to a number of high-profile cases where lives were lost at the hands of individuals with complicated mental health histories.
Since ACA tax credits expired at the beginning of the year, North Carolina has seen a 22% drop in enrollment in the healthcare marketplace, and premiums have increased by a whopping 114%.
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey has approved an average rate increase of nearly 30% for ACA plans sold through Healthcare.gov. Causey said the increases reflect rising health care costs as well as provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July.