Governor Roy Cooper and federal Health and Human Services officials have asked a U. S. District Court judge to lift a restraining order that temporarily blocks Medicaid expansion in North Carolina. 

 

North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore won the two-week restraining order Saturday after Cooper petitioned the federal government to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a move the Republican leaders say is illegal. In 2013, the General Assembly passed a law that requires legislative approval to expand Medicaid. Cooper counters that law impinges on the authority of the Executive Branch. Federal HHS officials agree arguing Cooper has the authority to expand Medicaid as the state as chief administrator of the program. 

 

Cooper maintains that Berger and Moore overstate the problems of Medicaid expansion and that their arguments "has led this Court to use equitable powers that have no sound foundation here.” 

 

Berger wrote on Facebook Monday that Cooper was trying to expand Medicaid before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on Friday. Trumo has pledged to quickly sign legislation that would repeal the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare.   

 

“There’s no question if this was an honest or legal attempt to expand Obamacare, they would have no problem waiting four more days until President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office,” Berger wrote.