It’s been more than 13 years since former President Barack Obama signed his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, and paved the way for states to expand Medicaid largely through federal funding.
North Carolina residents are finally reaping the benefits as the state’s long-sought expansion takes effect Friday and opens the door to health coverage for 600,000.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat and surrogate for the Joe Biden–Kamala Harris presidential re-election campaign, took to CNN to celebrate his state’s Medicaid expansion, and decry the former occupant of the White House who would take it away.
“Donald Trump is really good at reading the room full of conspiracy theorists but he’s not good at reading the room full of Americans who need health care,” Cooper said on the network Friday morning, referencing the former President’s vow to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which he and others colloquially refer to as Obamacare.”
“Medicaid expansion, the Affordable Care Act, has provided health insurance for millions of Americans, and we’re about to get 600,000 more insured in North Carolina. And here’s who we’re talking about: working people,” he added, referencing people who make, prior to expansion, too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance.
He added that cohort also includes child care workers, restaurant employees, seniors and others.
“These are the people that Donald Trump wants to rip away insurance from, and that is a message that I think will resound during these next campaigns,” Cooper said.
Trump clarified earlier this week that his plan is to replace the Affordable Care Act, not just “terminate” it. He didn’t elaborate on what he’d replace it with, a common refrain in the years after the Act was signed into law as Republicans rushed to cancel it.
That effort has long since quieted, however, and previous reporting from CNN shows Obama’s health care law, which President Biden helped craft as Obama’s Vice President, has actually gotten pretty popular.
Polling shows that as of May, 59% of Americans have a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act, compared to 40% who view it unfavorably. And while it was less popular during Trump’s presidency, it still had more favorable views than unfavorable throughout his tenure in the White House.
