EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

Perspective | How will the new federal budget affect kids’ health in North Carolina?

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/perspective-how-will-the-new-federal-budget-affect-kids-health-in-north-carolina/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:

Health policy fans got a big Christmas present from Congress at the end of December. The Omnibus Appropriations Act included many important pieces of health care policy and funding that will make a big difference in health care for our kids and families this year. Here’s a quick look at what it means for North Carolina’s families.

Locking in post-partum coverage

One of the biggest changes in Medicaid coverage in years is the American Rescue Plan Act’s state plan option to provide 12 months of postpartum coverage. North Carolina opted in through legislation in 2021, with a sunset provision going into effect after five years. The new Appropriations Act made the 12-months option permanent — so as long as North Carolina opts in, our state will continue to receive the additional funding to keep new parents covered for 12 months after the birth of a child.

Continuous Medicaid eligibility for kids

North Carolina is one of 24 states that provides 12 months of continuous eligibility for children in Medicaid and NC Health Choice. The new Appropriations Act requires all states to provide this coverage to children under age 19, starting in 2024. While North Carolina is already doing this, a federal requirement provides additional safeguards for our kids’ coverage for years to come.

Investments in mental health and more

The Appropriations Act also creates more investments for mental health, establishes grant programs to address maternal mental health and substance use, improves the stability of coverage for youth involved in the justice system, requires states to publish public directories of mental health service providers who accept Medicaid (beginning in 2025), provides technical assistance to states on crisis response services, and more.

The Act also boosts investments in children’s health and nutrition programs, and reauthorizes critical maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs.

Children’s Health Insurance Program funding

The Appropriations Act secures federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (known here as NC Health Choice) through 2029 — federal funding for this program was previously set to expire in 2027. This provides more stability for families with children over six who rely on the CHIP program for their health coverage in our state.

Unwinding Medicaid coverage protections

The Act also ended the coverage provision that prevented states from disenrolling anyone covered by Medicaid during the COVID-19 public health emergency. As a result of delinking these coverage requirements from the public health emergency, states will be required to start the process of “redetermination” (determining whether Medicaid enrollees still qualify) starting on April 1, 2023. We at NC Child will be dedicating a blog to this issue soon.

Read more about what this high-impact legislation will mean for children’s health coverage in this detailed analysis from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families.