RALEIGH, N.C. — CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article said the bill was set to be signed by Gov. Cooper. This is incorrect. The bill needs one more affirmative House vote before it goes to Gov. Cooper, according to Associated Press.
The Medicaid expansion concurred in the North Carolina House on Wednesday. The bill now has to get one more affirmative House vote before it goes to Gov. Roy Cooper's desk for signing.
If Cooper signs, it will give about 600,000 North Carolinians access to health insurance.
North Carolina House Rep. Pricey Harrison wrote on her Twitter: " Thousands of lives saved through preventative care. Rural hospitals saved. Jobs created. NC taxpayer money staying here."
Under current requirements, you must have a low income and are either pregnant, have a child under 18, be blind, have or live with a family member with a disability, or be 65 and older.
The expansion will remove many of the requirements to qualify for Medicaid.
According to healthcare.gov, the new threshold would be: anyone who makes up under 138% of the federal poverty level would qualify. That means about $20,000 for a single person, 27,000 for a family of two, $34,000 for a family of 3, and $41,000 for a family of 4. The numbers will be a little different depending on which county you live in, but they should be somewhere around these amounts.
The expansion could mean a decrease in people dying, according to the University of Michigan. Research also shows that access to healthcare frees up money for other things, like food, rent, and child support.
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