Washington Passed Dramatic Medicaid Cuts and Is Poised to Let Critical ACA Tax Credits Lapse, Raising Costs for Hundreds of Thousands of North Carolinians
RALEIGH – Last week, Roy Cooper hosted a roundtable discussion to highlight the major threats to health care in North Carolina posed by the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill and Michael Whatley’s unconditional support for it.
NC Newsline: Roy Cooper warns Medicaid expansion is ‘in danger’ as he slams GOP spending bill on campaign trail
Galen Bacharier, September 19, 2025
- Former Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday that congressional Republicans’ tax and spending bill had put Medicaid expansion in North Carolina “in danger.”
- Cooper, a Democrat who is now running for U.S. Senate, oversaw the passage of Medicaid expansion while serving as governor. He frequently touts it as one of the highlights of his eight-year administration.
- “It doesn’t have anything to do with waste, fraud and abuse,” Cooper said […]. “They were creating this … so they could give people tax breaks.”
- Cooper criticized his Republican opponent Michael Whatley’s support of the package.
WRAL: Cooper, seeking NC’s open U.S. Senate seat, tackles health care cuts in Raleigh speech.
Will Doran, September 19, 2025
Former Gov. Roy Cooper is raising concerns about the state economy as Republicans in Washington slash health spending and Republicans in Raleigh show no immediate interest in replacing the funding.
- “Groceries are higher, utilities are higher, rent is higher, childcare is higher and harder to find, and now we’re seeing the cost of health care significantly increase — or even be eliminated — by the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ that just passed,” Cooper said Friday. “My opponent, Michael Whatley, says that he would have voted for the Big, Beautiful Bill in a heartbeat.”
“During his health care roundtable, former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper argues the One Big Beautiful Bill will hurt North Carolina, especially when it comes to health care. Medicaid expansion was one of Cooper’s biggest accomplishments as governor.”
“Cooper says under President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, he is concerned about thousands of North Carolinians losing affordable health care because of federal cuts.”
“Insurance companies are raising their premiums on top of federal subsidies not being renewed by Congress in this Big Beautiful Bill. And we’re going to see probably close to 900,000 people are going to find their premiums increasing hundreds of dollars a month, some of them thousands of dollars a month.” – Roy Cooper