RALEIGH — While the government shutdown in Washington and the state budget impasse in Raleigh involve different actors and effects, there is a common denominator: the extent to which debates about public finance are really debates about health care costs.
When Democrats in Congress refused to support a continuing resolution to keep all federal agencies open, their stated goals were to rescind previously enacted Medicaid savings and to protect generous subsidies provided since 2020 to middle-income families enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans.
And when Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly refused to appropriate as much new money to Medicaid as Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said was needed, the Stein administration began slashing reimbursement rates to hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers…