On Sunday, August 25, Governor Cooper’s office released the following statement in response to Senate Bill 86 becoming law without his signature:
“People have a right to be frustrated with the cost of private health insurance plans, but even though there is significant bipartisan support for this legislation, my concerns about the legality of these cheaper plans and their potential negative effects on health care prevent me from signing the bill. These plans, if they survive legal challenge, can take us back to a time when people can be discriminated against for pre-existing conditions in addition to driving up health care costs for everyone else. A proven and effective way most other states have used to drive down the cost of private health insurance has been to accept the billions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid. We must find a bipartisan way to do this too.”