Gov. Cooper heralds health progress in biannual speech

By Anne Blythe

Gov. Roy Cooper prompted loud cheers, whoops and a standing ovation during his state of the state address on Monday evening when he mentioned Medicaid expansion.

The governor came to the General Assembly as part of a biannual tradition to provide lawmakers and the people of North Carolina his take on how best to approach the future.

In his fourth such address, with a little less than two years left in his second term as governor, Cooper told lawmakers that he thinks the state is poised for “once-in-a-generation opportunities.”

That includes stepping up efforts to extend broadband to the rural-most reaches of the state. He called for double-digit raises for teachers and enhanced funding for North Carolina’s children, from cradle to career.

Cooper hearkened back to the past as he heralded the future.

“Time and again, overcoming adversity, our leaders had the foresight and the resolve to invest in new ideas that have revolutionized our state, impacting the generations that followed,” Cooper said. “And while we stand on their shoulders, we also stand at an altogether new crossroads.

“Our moment to build enduring prosperity is now,” Cooper added. 

Part of that construction, for some 600,000 low-income residents in North Carolina, is something Cooper has been advocating for since he became governor in 2017. Just last week, after years of facing opposition from Republicans to his pitch to extend the subsidized health care benefit made possible through the Affordable Care Act, Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) and House speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) made a long-awaited announcement: They had negotiated an agreement that would include a provision to expand Medicaid in the budget for the next two years.

Federal dollars at risk

Cooper reveled in the whoops and applause at his mention of Medicaid and the news from the previous week.

“I’m grateful for our unified Democratic legislators — and some of the Republicans who have been relentless for years in this effort to expand Medicaid,” Cooper said, acknowledging those across the aisle who had joined Democrats to make it happen. 

“I commend the hard work of this Republican legislature for embracing this and coming together in agreement,” he said.

He thanked advocates who shared his commitment to making health care more affordable and accessible to residents who were caught between a rock and a hard place.

Expansion will cover many low-income workers who made too much money

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Gov. Baker: Invoice would increase psychological overall health treatment companies | Health and fitness and Health

BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker unveiled a bill Tuesday that he explained would support broaden entry to main care and psychological overall health services and aid management increasing wellness treatment and prescription drug expenses.

The Republican comprehensive the laws all through a prevent at a overall health care middle in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.

Baker claimed the state has some unfinished company when it arrives to expanding health and fitness treatment entry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He stated the monthly bill aims to enhance investments in behavioral health treatment services, control components that drive up wellness care fees and enhance entry to significant high quality coordinated treatment for people today working with numerous wellbeing treatment worries.

“The pandemic demonstrated that while our wellness treatment method does lots of thing very well — and luckily we all noticed that initial hand just about every single working day — we still have a variety of considerable issues and problems we require to solve,” he said.

1 of the best remaining challenges is making certain that those in need of behavioral well being care services are handled on par with those with actual physical wellbeing treatment needs.

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The monthly bill would call for health care companies and payers to boost expenses on main treatment and behavioral overall health by 30% in excess of 3 yrs, with the preliminary general performance interval ending in 2024.

“I don’t assume I have identified anyone in Massachusetts who thinks we have sufficient persons enjoying in the behavioral wellbeing space to just take treatment of the individuals who are making an attempt to access companies,” Baker explained, adding that the state “experienced challenges with respect to obtain to those expert services prior to the pandemic.”

Amy Rosenthal, govt director of the nonprofit Overall health Treatment For All, welcomed the invoice, saying it could help increase accessibility to medication by decreasing costs.

“We need to have to rein in growing prescription drug prices so that men and women and family members can afford their treatments and are not pressured to pick out among placing meals on the desk or shelling out for their remedies,” Rosenthal said in a published statement.

The Massachusetts Senate in November unanimously accepted their possess monthly bill that would assurance Massachusetts people are qualified for once-a-year mental overall health wellness examinations at no charge

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Gov. Wolf Celebrates Bipartisan Home Bill 253, Appropriating $225 Million to Help Health Treatment Workforce


Governor Tom Wolf currently was joined by Democratic and Republican legislative users to celebrate Dwelling Monthly bill 253, which appropriates $225 million to help Pennsylvania’s heroic health care workforce.

“Three weeks back, my administration convened a functioning group which include all four caucuses to recognize rapid investments to guidance the health treatment workforce overburdened by staffing shortages after a long time of battling the pandemic on the front traces,” reported Gov. Wolf. “Together, Democrats and Republicans arrived jointly in a bipartisan energy to handle this concern via Dwelling Invoice 253. I am happy to indication this crucial legislation into regulation to support our overall health care workforce and guarantee Pennsylvanians can carry on to receive top quality treatment for unexpected emergency well being difficulties and lifetime-preserving treatments.

In modern months, Pennsylvania’s wellbeing treatment workforce has been below severe tension as hospitals and health care services reach and exceed capability although seeing clients with higher amounts of acuity. Staffing shortages and superior figures of clients have contributed to hospitals achieving ability and needing to divert patients to other similarly burdened services. In reaction, hospitals and health treatment systems asked the commonwealth for funding specifically for recruitment and retention of crucial staff.

Home Invoice 253 as amended appropriates $225 million in federal American Rescue Strategy Act funding to support the overall health care workforce in Pennsylvania. The funding is set to guidance the pursuing well being care areas:

  • $100 million to be distributed to all acute care, critical obtain, and children’s hospitals certified by the Division of Wellness on a for each-mattress basis. The funding will be applied strictly for recruitment and retention payments to direct care workers.
  • $110 million to be dispersed on a per-mattress foundation to superior-Healthcare Support hospitals, specified Important Accessibility Hospitals, and inpatient and household behavioral well being facilities for recruitment and retention payments to important team.
  • $15 million to quadruple the funds accessible for the nurse financial loan forgiveness plan at Pennsylvania Increased Instruction Aid Company (PHEAA), a higher-need application which has previously gained a lot more than 8,000 applications in advance of the March 1st deadline.

Governor Wolf was joined by Democratic and Republican associates of the Common Assembly in the Governor’s Reception Place to celebrate the legislation.

“Our well being care employees have been pushed to ability bodily, monetarily, mentally, and emotionally these previous two many years as we battle the

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