{"id":53742,"date":"2025-07-10T09:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53742\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:21:11","slug":"how-the-big-beautiful-bill-will-affect-health-care-in-n-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53742\/","title":{"rendered":"How the \u2018Big Beautiful Bill\u2019 will affect health care in N.C.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jaymie Baxley and Anne Blythe<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday evening, just days after President Donald Trump signed into law the new federal budget<\/a> passed by Congress, several dozen people took a seat in the Pullen Park Community Center in Raleigh.<\/p>\n

Two of the capital city\u2019s Democratic state lawmakers \u2014 Sen. Jay Chaudhuri and Rep. Tim Longest \u2014 were holding a town hall with Heba Atwa, director of legislative advocacy and campaigns for the nonprofit, nonpartisan NC Budget and Tax Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sweeping legislation, which GOP legislators named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was top of their agenda. It significantly cuts Medicaid and food assistance programs while cutting taxes for the wealthiest and having many other impacts on health and safety net programs.<\/p>\n

Trump has described the new law<\/a> as \u201ca once-in-a-generation piece of legislation that makes good on his campaign promises and puts America first.\u201d His critics quickly point out that it also breaks his promise that \u201cwe\u2019re not cutting Medicaid<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, elected officials, state policymakers, administrators and others are working to boil down the thousand-plus pages into plainspoken snippets that might be easier for the public to understand.<\/p>\n

Devdutta Sangvai, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, spoke bluntly last week, just hours before the U.S. House of Representatives took their 218-214 vote<\/a> on July 3 to concur with the U.S. Senate\u2019s version of the bill.<\/p>\n

The barriers to food and health care, Sangvai warned, would have far-reaching consequences that will \u201cshow up elsewhere in our schools, our justice system and our housing programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes would hurt not only individuals and families, but also North Carolina\u2019s economy and workforce,\u201d Sangvai said during a July 1 news briefing<\/a>. \u201cWhen people can\u2019t meet basic needs, we all feel the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

How quickly the state will feel the impact is not yet clear \u2014 the new law cuts Medicaid, adds work requirements to the program and creates administrative changes that will be phased in mostly after the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n

With the state budget process at a stalemate, it\u2019s not clear whether the General Assembly will adopt a fiscal plan that has the state taking on any of the\u00a0 financial burden resulting from federal cuts to safety net programs. If the state doesn\u2019t choose to shoulder those costs, then the financial strain and hardships could end up in the laps of counties<\/a>, some of which might resort to raising property tax rates to generate the revenue needed, Atwa explained.<\/p>\n

\u2018Billions of dollars in lost funding\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those were just some of the issues that came up at the town hall held Tuesday by Chaudhuri and Longest.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiscal policy is foundational to well-being and to the things that we care about \u2014 and to our day-to-day lives,\u201d Atwa told the crowd. \u201cI think that\u2019s becoming clearer and clearer to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she flipped through slide after slide, Atwa added: \u201cThese federal cuts are going to hurt North Carolina, they\u2019re going to hurt people\u2019s well-being, they\u2019re going to hurt our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the shorthand<\/a>, according to the governor\u2019s office:<\/p>\n