At its monthly meeting Wednesday, the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce board heard a presentation supporting Gov. Pat McCrory’s openness to the idea of expanding Medicaid coverage in North Carolina. The governor has said recently that he might consider a plan to extend Medicaid coverage.

Chamber president and CEO Connie Majure-Rhett said Friday that board member John Gizdic, COO of New Hanover Regional Medical Center, outlined reasons for NHRMC’s support for expanding Medicaid in North Carolina so that more individuals would have insurance coverage.

Majure-Rhett listed in her president’s report, released Friday, the factors Gizdic cited as supporting the expansion of North Carolina’s Medicaid program. Here those are, according to the president's report:

• "For individuals to qualify for Medicaid now, they must make less than $16,105;
• If Medicaid were expanded, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost in 2016 and would taper down to 90 percent after 4 years;
• This plan has been accepted by 27 other states, which means these states are all benefiting from North Carolina tax dollars paid to the federal government, while we are not;
• If North Carolina expanded Medicaid, 500,000 more people across the state would be eligible for the program and would have insurance coverage (approximately 21,000 in our region);
• We are still paying for these individuals to receive medical care, because, by law, the hospital must provide it, and they receive it through the emergency center;
• Over eight years, an initial investment of about $1 billion in North Carolina would result in about $15 billion in federal funding;
• North Carolina will miss out on $51 billion in federal dollars over the next decade without expansion;
• An estimated 25,000 jobs would be created in North Carolina if Medicaid were expanded."

Majure-Rhett said that the chamber board was engaged in Gizdic’s presentation and acknowledged how much they learned from it.

“We have an incredible asset in NHRMC,” she said. “People moving here talk to me all the time about what great health care we have – led by NHRMC. We want to keep it that way, and don’t want our hospital to be limited in what it can provide because it has to provide care for free to large numbers of uninsured patients. Some hospitals in other parts of the state are closing because of these costs.”

At its monthly meeting in January, the chamber board will likely discuss whether to include the expansion of Medicaid to its 2015 public policy agenda, Majure-Rhett said.