Roy Cooper

“Health care costs are spiraling out of control for North Carolina families. Insurance companies are blindsiding working people with surprise bills and denied claims and forcing them to pay more for plans that cover less. Meanwhile, attacks on health care coming out of Washington are spiking premium costs and threatening to take health care away from working families.

As Governor, Roy Cooper was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to make real progress on health care, expanding Medicaid and helping hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians get access to health insurance. He will take that same common sense bipartisanship to Washington to make health care cost less the way he’s done his entire career.

• Let doctors decide about health care, not insurance bureaucrats. End insurance company runarounds by allowing doctors to make coverage decisions, and reform insurance company reviews that result in denial of coverage for what a doctor says you need.
• Reverse cuts that leave people without health insurance or unable to afford the coverage they have. North Carolina saw the largest drop of any state in Affordable Care Act enrollment. Reinstate the ACA tax credits and reverse Medicaid cuts. This will help lower costs for everyone’s premiums, including people who get their health insurance through an employer.
• Require Medicare to broaden negotiations with drug makers to make more prescription medicines affordable.
• Put patient care first at hospitals. Strengthen oversight of harmful hospital mergers and takeovers that put profits over patients.
• Crack down on pharmacy benefit managers and their middlemen who put small town pharmacists out of business and pocket savings instead of passing them along to patients.
• Curb surprise billing. Cap out-of-network charges for non-emergency care so that staying out-of-network isn’t a business strategy for health care companies, and designate emergency ground ambulance services as an essential health benefit—98% of emergency transport is unprotected.
• Cap annual prescription drug out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
• Prevent medical debt by mandating hospitals auto enroll in charity care, lowering drug and medical costs for all.
• Increase enforcement on upfront pricing to make health care costs transparent. Consumers should be able to shop around for the cost of common procedures and tests.”

Statement submitted by campaign or congressional office