2023 NASW-NC Legislative Session Update: Week 6
NASW-NC continues to be present at the North Carolina Legislature attending committee meetings to advance our 2023 Legislative Agenda.
NASW-NC Executive Director Valerie Arendt also currently serves as the Chair of the North Carolina Coalition on Behavioral Health and seeks to advance The Coalition's 2023 Budget Priorities at the North Carolina Legislature which is in line with the social work profession's legislative asks.
Medicaid Expansion on the Move! Access to Healthcare Options (HB 76) also known as Medicaid Expansion quickly passed through committees and passed the House of Representatives last week. The bill has been referred to the Senate. This is a top item on the NASW-NC 2023 Legislative Agenda as it would create a pathway for hundreds of thousands of low-income North Carolinians to receive health coverage. The potential recipients are largely low-income workers who earn too much to qualify for the program as it is currently structured. But if North Carolina pulled down federal dollars that other states do, they could qualify and be added to the Medicaid rolls. Unlike Medicaid Expansion bills, this one does not include proposed work requirements for new program beneficiaries. Please ask your Senators to take up Medicaid Expansion in the Senate.
Updates from NASW-NC!
- 2023 North Carolina Social Work Advocacy Day - Both sessions are full and we have opened a waitlist. We don't want to turn people away from showing up at Advocacy Day. Anyone can still attend, they may not be able to attend a session but can still come to meet with legislators, attend committees and speak with NASW-NC staff and volunteers.
- NASW-NC Advocacy 101/2023 Legislative Agenda Recorded Webinar Available!- The recordingand slides from this event can be found here for all to view.
- Active Action Alert: https://votervoice.net/NASWNC/Campaigns/100744/Respond
- Sign up for weekly NASW-NC legislative updates: https://votervoice.net/NASWNC/home
Bills On the Move Last Week:
- HB 35 - Expand Definition of Opioid Antagonist - expands the definition of an opioid antagonist to include all antagonists approved by the FDA for the treatment of drug overdoses
- HB 49 - Protect Religious Meeting Places - The North Carolina House approved a bill Wednesday that GOP lawmakers say will make it easier for people attending religious services to protect themselves. House Bill 49, named “Protect Religious Meeting Places,” would change current law to allow people with concealed carry permits to carry handguns to places of worship that also serve as schools, or have attached schools.
- HB 75 - PA Team-Based Practice - PAs would be able to prescribe, order, administer, and procure drugs and medical devices without physician authorization.
- HB 98 - Medical Freedom Act: prohibit city, county and state government agencies and certain political subdivisions from requiring employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 and would not allow the State Board of Education, local public school districts, colleges and universities to require students to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or be vaccinated for one or multiple doses. Would allow students and/or their parents to bring a civil action against the governing body of the public school district. Source
- HB 101 - Firearms Liberty Act - Authorizes carrying a handgun in places of worship.
- HB 107 - Repeal Certificate of Need Laws
- HB 126 - The Prison Resources Repurposing Act - an act to allow parole consideration for those sentenced to life imprisonment.
- SB 40 - Pistol Purchase Permit Repeal - This bill would repeal the pistol purchase permit required to obtain a firearm in North Carolina. NASW-NC Opposes.
- SB 67 - Firearm Safe Storage Awareness Initiative - voluntary two-year statewide firearm safe storage awareness initiative
HB 76 - Access to Healthcare Options - Medicaid Expansion Update
The North Carolina House passed a bill to expand Medicaid on Thursday that would grant health insurance coverage to thousands of low-income residents. The House also amended the bill to establish a pilot program to provide forgivable loans to eligible students who agree to practice medicine or nursing on a full-time basis in rural areas. House Bill 76 would become effective Jan. 1, 2024. The lengthy bill includes a workforce development program, which lays out that the state should help people enrolled in Medicaid access workforce development services, and a program called the “healthcare access and stabilization program” to increase reimbursement rates under Medicaid. The expansion bill says if the federal government cost share for people enrolled in expansion falls below 90%, coverage for these individuals “shall be discontinued as expeditiously as possible.” To encourage states that had not expanded Medicaid to get on board, the federal government in 2021 temporarily increased its contribution for Medicaid expansion to states that have not passed expansion.
Source:https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article272479169.html
Gun Bills
The North Carolina Senate passed a package of gun rights bills Thursday that includes a measure that would repeal the state’s permit law for buying handguns. Senate Bill 41, named “Guarantee 2nd Amend Freedom and Protections,” passed the chamber along party lines, 29-19, and now heads to the House. Originally filed as three separate bills, the measures approved by the Senate on Thursday were combined into a single bill by a committee this week before moving forward. The combined measure would get rid of the permitting system for the sale of handguns. It would allow people going to places of worship that also serve as schools, or have attached schools, to carry concealed handguns for their protection. And it would launch a two-year awareness initiative on safe firearm storage. Lawmakers in the House advanced the same measures through committees this week, still filed separately, and approved the bill expanding concealed carry in religious meeting places on Wednesday.
Source: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article272520303.html
Veto Overrides
North Carolina House Republicans are again proposing to modify their chamber’s operating rules on veto overrides for the next two years, only now offering Democratic colleagues some broad limits on when they could be attempted. Temporary House rules approved on a party-line vote last month omitted a rule from previous years that required chamber leaders to give at least two days’ notice before holding an override vote. House Republicans fell one seat short of holding a majority large enough to override Democratic Gov. Cooper’s veto without needing support from Democrats. This balance of power could affect the outcome of bills on abortion, gun rights and immigration. Based on the state constitution’s veto provisions, Republicans could succeed with an override if only two Democrats are absent and all Republicans are present. Senate Republicans already hold a veto-proof majority in their chamber.
Source: https://www.wfdd.org/story/north-carolina-house-gop-again-modifies-rules-veto-overrides
Behavioral Health Registry
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services now offers an online registry called BH Scan. It provides a daily update of available beds, allowing for a more efficient path to treatment. Officials believe the system can help decrease wait times for patients seeking psychiatric help from hospital emergency departments
Source: https://www.wfdd.org/story/nc-introduces-new-online-registry-expedite-behavioral-health-treatment
Funding Updates:
Mental Health Grant
The investment of $7.7 million, announced by Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday, will go toward providing additional mental health services to students. The funding will also go toward sustaining initiatives previously created by the governor’s $5 million grant issued to the UNC system for similar use in May 2021. The money being put into these programs stems from the federal Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools funds that have reverted to the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief fund. Staff and faculty across all state colleges and universities will be offered suicide prevention training. The aim of this training will be to help school leaders better identify and support students in crisis.
Telepsychiatry Grant
Gov. Roy Cooper is traveling to Greenville Tuesday to announce the expansion of the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program. The United Health Foundation at East Carolina is joining in the announcement of a $3.2 million, three-year grant to provide mental health services to underserved children in six community-based pediatric and primary care clinics in rural and underserved parts of the state. The grant is intended to help services reach more children in North Carolina, where they experience significant challenges accessing the care needed to address their mental health, according to a news release about the event.
Upcoming Advocacy Days
- NAMI NC Advocacy Days:
- February 23 - Virtual Advocacy Day 1 from 10:00 to 11:30 am: We will offer an introduction to the idea behind meeting at the legislature and have legislators, NAMI staff, and supporters testify to the importance of storytelling in moving the legislative process where we want it to be. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82951770329
- March 3 - Virtual Advocacy Day 2 from 10:00 to 11:30 am: We will go through the details of navigating the legislature, where to park, how to speak effectively, and how to schedule meetings with follow-ups. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85059314751
- March 9 – In-Person Advocacy Day 3 (starting at 9 am): An in-person event at the General Assembly in Raleigh. We will meet together beforehand at a rally point where refreshments will be served, people will get packets of information to distribute, and everyone will be told where to go if they don't know the legislature already.
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