Five years ago, North Carolina embarked on a bold experiment to road test the idea that providing nutritious food, safe housing and transportation for doctors’ visits can help fragile Medicaid recipients stay healthy and avoid costly hospital stays.
For Krista Shalda, a single mother of two boys with complex medical needs, that meant receiving a weekly box of fresh produce. The provisions made it easier to stick to the special diet that reduced her 15-year-old’s trips to the emergency room.
Kellie Prince, who learned she had become homeless while recuperating from spinal surgery, was given a motel room for several weeks so she and her family didn’t have to sleep in a car in the hospital parking lot.
And for Debra Hensley, 60, who is partially blind and physically disabled, the new roof and electrical work paid for by the Medicaid program, the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, or HOP, allowed her to stay in the aging trailer she shares with her teenage grandson.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that HOP saved my life,” said Ms. Hensley, gesturing to holes in the ceiling that had previously channeled rain water into her living room.
By many accounts, the $650 million set side for North Carolina’s Medicaid experiment was a success, and it enjoyed bipartisan support in the state’s Republican-led General Assembly.
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The post Fragile N.C. Residents Lose Medicaid Support for Food and Housing appeared first on New York Times.
