FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Doctors for America
PO Box 53313
1921 Florida Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009-9997
March 30, 2023
DFA’s Medicaid Expansion Campaign Statement
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday March 27th, North Carolina became the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to years of tireless advocacy by Doctors for America and the rest of the Care for Carolina Coalition, Governor Cooper and the North Carolina legislature forged a bipartisan achievement to bring affordable health coverage to as many as 600,000 individuals. This expansion provides a transformative benefit to each of newly covered North Carolinians and their families, securing everything from routine vaccinations to cancer treatments and bringing us one step closer to fulfilling the promise of health care as a human right.
Doctors for America is proud to have been a part of the Medicaid expansion campaign in North Carolina as well as the successful ballot campaign in South Dakota. Our powerful team of advocates now turn our attention to the ten remaining non-expansion states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The political leaders of the non-expansion states continue to leave their citizens at the mercy of an increasingly profit-driven health care system that often saddles these patients with mountains of medical debt – if they are able to access care at all. We call again on the legislatures of these states to immediately correct this cruel and shortsighted failure.
We remain committed to empowering local champions for expansion in the non-expansion states through on-the-ground advocacy training. We invite all Alabamians to join Doctors for America and Alabama Arise for a Medicaid Expansion Advocacy Training in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday, May 13. Participants can register to join in person or virtually. The following month we will be working with Healthy Wyoming to host a training in Casper, Wyoming on Saturday, June 24, again both in person and virtually. Trainings in Wisconsin and Georgia are also in the works for later this year.
As we noted in our recent celebration of the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, provisions like Medicaid expansion have been nothing short of life changing for the Americans who have benefited from them. Yet until equitable, high quality and affordable health care is extended to every person in the country, Doctors for America will continue in the struggle for this basic human right.
About Doctors for America:
Doctors for America (DFA) mobilizes doctors and medical students to be leaders in putting patients over politics to improve the health of our patients, communities, and nation. DFA is an organization of over 27,000 physician and medical student advocates in all 50 states, representing all areas of specialization. DFA teaches physicians and medical students advocacy skills and does advocacy at a state and federal level. Our impact areas focus on access to affordable care, community health and prevention, and health justice and equity. DFA focuses solely on what is best for our patients, not on the business side of medicine, and does not accept any funding from pharmaceutical or medical device companies, which uniquely positions DFA as the organization that puts patients over politics and patients over profits.
Find out more at doctorsforamerica.org and on Twitter @drsforamerica.
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