| After North Carolina Republican leadership handpicked Jennifer Balkcom to be their NC-11 nominee, local doctors and physicians are calling out Balkcom’s reckless health care agenda.
Balkcom’s laundry list of offenses include:
- Repeatedly voting against bipartisan Medicaid expansion that provided health care for 725,000 North Carolinians
- Fully embracing House Republicans’ agenda of ripping away health care from hardworking families.
- REMINDER: Following Republicans’ failure to extend the ACA tax credits, nearly 165,000 North Carolinians dropped their coverage, the highest of any state in the country.
- It is estimated that premiums would increase in the state by nearly 150% and that 1 in 4 ACA enrollees would go without healthcare
North Carolina’s physicians put it best, warning “We deserve someone in Congress who understands Medicaid, who understands health care and the importance of Medicaid for everyone, but especially for rural communities.”
DCCC Spokesperson Madison Andrus:
“Access to affordable health care is an existential issue for Western North Carolina voters and Jennifer Balkcom has been on a mission to destroy it. Balkcom has directly contributed to the state’s health care crisis and has pledged to do even more damage if elected to Congress. Families deserve a representative that will fight to put them first, not someone who’s hellbent on ripping away their access to health care.”
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La ConexiĂłn USA:Â Doctors in western North Carolina explain how Jennifer Balkcom could put patients at risk
- Following the selection of State Representative Jennifer Balkcom as the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District last week, physicians in the district met virtually to discuss the potential implications of her election to Congress for health care in the region. Balkcom opposed the state’s bipartisan Medicaid expansion in 2023, a measure that has since helped more than 725,000 North Carolinians gain health coverage.
- “I join other physicians in the 11th Congressional District because we are deeply concerned about what State Representative Jennifer Balkcom’s record on health care could mean for our region and our patients,” said Dr. Laura Helfman, an emergency physician in Marshall. “Medicaid is how patients get medications, see their doctors, and receive preventive and urgent care when it’s not a life-threatening situation—or at least it should be. Expanding Medicaid brought federal funding to the state and allowed for improved health care in rural areas, but Jennifer Balkcom opposed it.”
- Dr. Bruce Pichler, a retired podiatrist from Asheville who used to practice in Dahlonega, Georgia, explained how that state’s refusal to expand Medicaid affected rural hospitals like the one where he worked, ultimately contributing to its closure.
- “If Georgia had expanded Medicaid, we would have been able to continue providing health care. I would still be practicing today. But Georgia didn’t,” said Dr. Pichler. “Now, Jennifer Balkcom didn’t want to expand Medicaid here in North Carolina. And it’s a real shame because so many people depend on it. And little by little, small hospitals will be affected and will have to cut services. Eventually, they will close.”
- Dr. Pichler also mentioned the district’s current representative, Congressman Chuck Edwards, and his vote in favor of HR1 to cut Medicaid, saying, “We deserve someone in Congress who understands Medicaid, who understands health care and the importance of Medicaid for everyone, but especially for rural communities.”
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