Roy Cooper Wants Welfare Spending Increased by $3-6 BILLION for Healthcare for Able-bodied Adults Who Won’t Work

While Governor Cooper wants to grow welfare by spending $3-$6 billion of our money to give free healthcare to able-bodied adults who won’t work, working people who aren’t on Cooper’s radar and don’t get free stuff pay above average healthcare costs.

Look what the Charlotte Observer found out about high health care costs in North Carolina:

“For a CT scan with dye, the average cost nationally is $799. The North Carolina average is $1,016. In Charlotte, the average is $846, and in Raleigh, $583.

▪ For an MRI of the brain without dye, the average cost nationally is $786. The North Carolina average is $1,458. In Charlotte, the average is $1,330, and in Raleigh, $1,093.

▪ For an MRI of the lumbar spine without dye, the average cost nationally is $716. The North Carolina average is $1,218. The Charlotte average is $1,396, and Raleigh’s is $713.

▪ For an MRI of the cervical spine without dye, the average cost nationally is $715. The North Carolina average is $1,259. The Charlotte average is $1,323, and Raleigh’s is half that – $696.

▪ For a knee replacement, the average cost nationally is $35,543. North Carolina’s average, $40,602. Charlotte’s average was higher than either the national or state average, at $46,229.

▪ For vaginal childbirth and newborn care, the average cost nationally is $12,485. North Carolina’s average, $13,796. Charlotte’s average, $15,016.”
Why do we pay so much more? Because the NCDHHS bureaucracy and many politicians stifle medical competition.

For example, the Certificate of Need law blocks new entrants into medical services like imaging and allows incumbent providers to keep prices up.

Here’s more evidence of an anti-competitive healthcare market:

Carolina Journal reports on a study from George Mason University documenting our state’s low ranking on access to less costly healthcare options.

“A senior research fellow and health-care scholar at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, Graboyes recently helped with a study showing North Carolina trails the national average in all four key telemedicine indicators — Medicaid reimbursement levels for telemedicine and telemonitoring; requirements imposed on ‘telepresenters’ — medical professionals who consult with or treat patients remotely; and whether the state allows online prescribing.

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(Source: http://cprnc.org/strangling-market-raises-healthcare-costs/)