NC Medicaid Head Opposes Expansion

System's busted

RALEIGH, N.C.­ – The ranks of Republican governors refusing to expand Medicaid has shrunk in recent weeks. Nationwide, 14 of the nation's 28 Republican governors have rejected the federally funded expansion. Eight of the holdouts are in the South.

Carol Steckel sides with the governors who have decided not to expand Medicaid. Newly appointed head of North Carolina's Medicaid program, she will oversee a top-to-bottom internal overhaul. Shortly after Steckel took the job, the state's new Republican governor, Pat McCrory, declared the Medicaid program "broken and not ready to expand."

A recent state audit showed the state's $13 billion Medicaid program spent more on administrative costs than nine other states with similarly sized programs. Expected next is an internal review of North Carolina's vaunted medical homes program, which reportedly saved the state $1 billion in Medicaid costs over the last decade.