WWW.TRIANGLE TRIBUNE.COM NC lawmakers push The Triangle Medicaid work requirements By Melissa Boughton RIBUNE THE POLICY WATCH THE TRIANGLE’S CHOICE FOR THE BLACK VOICE T Emily Henderson was kicked off of Medicaid last year when she went from making $8 per hour at her job to $10 per hour. The raise put her over VOLUME 20 NO. 43 WEEK OF APRIL 14, 2019 $1.00 the income limit. Her son, who is diabetic, remains covered, but she has to choose more often than not between paying to take care of her own health without insurance coverage and paying her bills. Her story of losing coverage is one that could become a reality for many Durham Bulls to more people if Republican lawmakers in the North Carolina General As- sembly pass a bill to implement work-reporting requirements for “able- showcase new menu bodied” adults who receive Medicaid health benefits. items this season. The current income limits are “already making it difficult,” Henderson said. “They’re handcuffing people to poverty to maintain health care.” Senate Bill 387 would require current N.C. Medicaid recipients to work or perform community service for a certain number of hours per week to re- tain their benefits. The introduction of the measure came within hours of a federal judge striking down similar requirements in Arkansas and Ken- tucky because they ran afoul of the assistance program’s overall objective. “The [federal] cases should give any state pause for moving forward with Please see MEDICAID/2A Nursing HBCU students leaders lobby NC talk up on health worth at care issues forum By Taylor Knopf By Lois Elfman N.C. HEALTH NEWS DIVERSE ISSUES IN EDUCATION A sea of white coats de- NEW YORK – Several presi- scended on the state capital dents of historically black col- last week as more than a leges and universities thousand nursing students discussed the far-reaching in- from around the state came to fluence of their institutions on push lawmakers on some of American life during a panel the biggest health care issues held last week at the National of this legislative work ses- LORI D.R. WIGGINS Action Network Convention. sion. Community leaders make Oak City Cares official with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Statistics make an emphatic The main talking points point. Over one-third of all during the N.C. Nurses Asso- African Americans with de- ciation’s “2019 Nurses Day at grees in STEM (science, tech- the Legislature” were the need Raleigh center a nology, engineering and for more school nurses, Med- mathematics) fields earned icaid expansion and the SAVE their degrees at a HBCU. Act, a bill that would allow ad- These are the institutions that vanced practice nurses to produce black electrical, civil treat patients without the su- one-stop hub for the and industrial engineers. pervision of a physician. “This whole question about Before walking from the how critical these institutions Raleigh Convention Center to are to our country is moot,” the General Assembly, Alex city’s homeless said Morgan State President Miller, lobbyist for the NCNA, David Wilson. “I don’t think encouraged nurses to tell By Lori D. R. Wiggins “We’ve been dreaming of this; attended by about 200 people we as a nation can sit in any their stories to legislators and CORRESPONDENT I just had to see it,” said Smith, who were invited to take self- room and have a serious con- as she took a self-guided tour guided tours. The center talk about their patients and RALEIGH – Deborah Smith versation about the long-term of the facility with former co- opened to the public on April what nursing means to them. watched over the five years she competitiveness of America if worker Rena Lockett, who still 10 at 1430 South Wilmington He explained that some law- worked at the South Wilming- HBCUs are not at the epicen- works as a mental health social St. makers still have the archaic ton Street Men’s Shelter as ter of that conversation.” worker at the men’s shelter. Through first-time collabora- idea of nurses as the “doctor’s docks at the abandoned ware- Howard University Presi- “This has all the things we tion in one space with dozens helper.” But, in reality, they do house next door became dent Wayne A. I. Frederick dreamed of for the homeless of service providers and part- so much more, he said. \ overnight bunks for homeless said he is living proof of the population.” ners, Oak City Cares hopes to “They should be able to do men the center was too full to importance of HBCUs. He That’s the plan for the non- make homelessness in Wake what they are trained, skilled welcome. began his undergraduate profit center, created in 2018 County “rare, brief and non-re- and educated to do,” said She’s also witnessed the studies at Howard as a 16- by Catholic Charities of the Dio- curring,” executive director Patrick Ballantine, a member warehouse transform into Oak year-old with sickle cell ane- cese of Raleigh in collaboration Kathy Johnson said. It can only of the NCNA government af- City Cares, a nonprofit one-stop mia. He participated in the with Wake County, the city of happen in a multi-agency, fairs team. “These regulations hub tailored to meet the em- university’s B.S./M.D. pro- Raleigh, and the Raleigh/Wake whole-community approach are so prehistoric, they are ployment, housing, health care, gram, and completed medical Partnership to End and Prevent that removes barriers to re- like a T-rex.” hunger and hygiene needs of school at the age of 22. Saadia Syed, a N.C. Central Homelessness. sources and stability by Howard gave him an opportu- Wake County’s homeless and Oak City Cares hosted a rib- nursing student, said she was near-homeless residents. Please see RALEIGH/2A nity that other institutions surprised at the lack of health bon-cutting ceremony Monday would not. care coverage in the United “In 1978, there were more States compared to her home African American males who country. “Back in Pakistan, I applied to medical school thought in America, you than in 2014,” Frederick said. would have good health in- “If this continues over the surance,” she said. “But I’ve next decade, seeing a black come to North Carolina, and I male physician will be an see the need and that’s one of Selling sex to meet daily needs anomaly. … Howard Univer- the things I want to do.” sity sends more African Upon graduation, she wants Americans to medical school to move to a rural, under- Life in assisted living on $66 a month than any other institution in served county of N.C. Specifi- the country.” cally, she would like to By Thomas Goldsmith During the debate that was practice in a county that has N.C. HEALTH NEWS moderated by Diverse execu- lost its hospital. She’s consid- When Shirley Ann Whitfield tive editor Jamal Watson, all ering Washington County. Joyner set out from her assisted liv- of the presidents emphasized Evony Pulliam, another ing center to be “with men for that HBCU institutions are in- NCCU nursing student, said money,” her sister says, Joyner only clusive, welcoming students the SAVE Act would do a lot wanted to pay for the things that of all backgrounds and eth- for her home community in made her feel human. nicities. Historically, these in- Person County, where there Judy Vines Hendrickson, of stitutions have created warm, are no OB-GYNs. She said peo- Sharpsburg, told her late sister’s safe environments, said Bene- ple from Person County drive story to shed light on the indignities dict College President Roslyn to Durham to have their ba- Whitfield endured while trying to Clark Artis. bies. meet her needs on the $66 a month Wilson, who has been at the The increasing lack of rural the state allows residents of assisted helm of Morgan for the past providers is one reason Miller living facilities — a combination of nine years, said he did not see thinks the SAVE Act has a bet- $46 from North Carolina’s that attitude at the predomi- ter chance at passing this time State/County Special Assistance nantly white institutions around. Similar legislation has fund and a $20 exclusion from the where he worked. been introduced unsuccess- person’s income. “I felt it was important for fully in the past. Many physi- “She was walking into stores ask- me as an African American cians and their associations ing people for money, being with woman to experience an insti- oppose the bill. men for money, trying to get money tution and curriculum that I The legislation also has for various things she needed,” believe was specifically de- more third-party support this signed for me,” said panelist Hendrickson, 64, said during a re- Shirley Ann Whitfield Joyner year, Miller said. The N.C. cent interview noting that she was Mary-Pat Hector, a senior at chapter of AARP has given paying for some needs out of her Spelman College and national more support to this issue an assisted living center in Roper, reached out to N.C. Health News youth director of NAN. “It’s a burial insurance policy. “Their the small Eastern North Carolina after reading of efforts to increase than in the past. Additionally, shoes wear out; there are female place of sisterhood, love and a robust lineup of lawmakers town she roamed asking for cash. the amounts. care, and a place that my pro- things they need — the things that Some advocates for these vulner- At a March 26 presentation before with health care experience make them feel human.” fessors care about me.” has signed on to the bill.