Starting to seem like partisan spite is keeping NC Republicans from expanding Medicaid

Expand Medicaid

North Carolina is now one of just 12 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Our federal taxes are benefiting other states, while our own citizens go without healthcare.

Some 600,000 additional North Carolinians would qualify for Medicaid under expansion and rural hospitals would be strengthened. We’re currently leaving billions in benefits on the table during a health crisis. The American Rescue Plan offers further financial incentive, yet Republican legislators refuse to act.

Republicans claim we cannot afford expansion. However, our state is projected to enjoy a budget surplus of $6.5 billion over the next two years. Is it possible Republican legislators are denying health coverage to hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians out of partisan stubbornness and spite? Because that’s how it’s beginning to look. Expand Medicaid now!

Suzanne Wittebort, Charlotte

NCSU baseball

I’m an NC State grad who bleeds Wolfpack Red. Please, Wolfpack Nation, stop blaming the NCAA and others for the NC State baseball team’s elimination from the College World Series. The student-athletes who elected not to be vaccinated have to bear that responsibility.

The irony is that our university is based , and was founded on — technology and science. This situation was avoidable. More will be hurt in the fall if the football team gets to the championship game and the same thing happens.

Student-athletes should do what is necessary for the team.

Stephen Smith, Charlotte

NCSU players

With all of the uncertainty surrounding the NCAA championship, did it not occur to the Wolfpack that being vaccinated would certainly prevent them from being sent home due to the NCAA COVID protocols? What a shame. I doubt they would have had to leave campus to get their shots.

David Fahey, Charlotte

Rep. Dan Bishop

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop said in a social media post about the NCSU baseball team “The pandemic is over.” It is not. COVID-19 remains a serious threat to all unvaccinated adults, in North Carolina and elsewhere in the country.

If you are middle-aged or older and unvaccinated, it remains an even more serious threat, particularly as more contagious variants of the virus become dominant.

Among all adults in North Carolina 18 years old and up, only about 48% are fully vaccinated. We need to do better — much better — than that if we truly want the pandemic to be over. Saying now that the pandemic is over is simply wishful thinking and seriously misleading.

Dumont Clarke, Charlotte

NC energy bill

The article “Sponsors defend NC energy bill goals, while Cooper pans it” (June 18) made made something unpleasantly clear: The energy bill proposed by N.C. legislators needs reworking.

Moving from coal power to natural gas has potentially disastrous consequences for the water table, because the fracking process used to extract that gas has caused environmental disasters in other states.

Nor does this bill move North Carolina closer to carbon neutrality. To become carbon neutral by 2050, we must wean ourselves off fossil fuels more aggressively than this bill would require.

Putting a rising cost on all new fossil fuels produced is a more effective, market-based solution. That’s what legislators should think about now.

Kim Fanelly, Mint Hill

Gun ownership

There should be no dispute why our country leads the civilized world in gun violence. We are number one in gun ownership per capita and we have lax gun laws.

State and federal legislators should no longer fear a discredited NRA. They must pass responsible regulations on gun ownership. ammunition and weapons of war.

Police officials must support these laws and sponsor gun buyouts to protect the public and their officers.

Finally, responsible gun owners need a responsible law-abiding organization to represent them.

David Nachamie, Lincolnton

This story was originally published June 28, 2021 at 3:47 PM.