North Carolina rejects Medicaid expansion, partnership exchange

{mosads}”There has been a lack of preparation within state government during the past year to build necessary and reliable systems to implement a state exchange,” McCrory said Tuesday as he rejected a partnership exchange.

The governor also said he will not take part in the law’s Medicaid expansion. The expansion is initially funded entirely by the federal government, but McCrory said he doesn’t trust Congress to follow through on that funding commitment.

“Due to the ongoing political uncertainty of the federal budget deficit, there is long-term concern regarding the federal government’s continuing of its obligation for matching funds under the terms of the Medicaid expansion,” he said in a statement.

The Obama administration has worked hard to allay those fears, even backing away from Medicaid cuts it had previously endorsed. And it has succeeded in convincing a few high-profile Republican governors to accept the Medicaid expansion, including Arizona’s Jan Brewer and Ohio’s John Kasich.

Still, conservatives have put enormous pressure on GOP governors to reject both policies, hoping to undermine ObamaCare as much as possible.