North Carolina health insurance

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status report:
North Carolina state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated North Carolina state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did North Carolina officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (7)

• Howard Coble
• Renee Ellmers
• Virginia Foxx
• Walter Jones

• Patrick McHenry
• Mike McIntyre
• Sue Myrick

Our
Pick

No (6)

• George Butterfield
• Larry Kissell
• R. Miller
• David Price

• Heath Shuler
• Melvin Watt

how healthy is living in North Carolina?

North Carolina is ranked this year as the 35th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation. That's up two spots from the state's 2009 ranking as the 37th healthiest.

The good news:

• North Carolina was praised this year for having a relatively high rate of immunization coverage (91.4 percent), and relatively low rates of binge drinking and occupational fatalities.
• Several changes for the better have been seen in North Carolina since last year; the violent crime rate saw a decrease from 467 to 404 offenses per 100,000 members of the population, and the rate of smoking declined from 20.9 percent to 20.3 percent (which in turn is a figure that has been decreasing for the past ten years, down from 25.1 percent in 2000).

The bad news:

• Some challenges facing North Carolina include a particularly low high school graduation rate (only 68.6 percent of 9th graders graduating within four years) and a particularly high infant mortality rate (8.3 deaths per 1,000 live births).
• The state has seen increases over the past five to 10 years of both obesity (to 30.1 percent) and percentage of children in poverty (now at 24.5 percent of the population under the age of 18).
• The latter statistic is high enough to put North Carolina in the bottom ten states for that category.

North Carolina's best and worst category rankings:

• Prevalence of binge drinking – 12th
• Immunization coverage – 17th
• Occupational fatalities – 18th
• High school graduation – 42nd
• Children in poverty – 42nd
• Infant mortality – 44th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on North Carolina.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key North Carolina health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts North Carolina here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for North Carolina, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does North Carolina have a health insurance high risk pool?

North Carolina Health Insurance Risk Pool (NCHIRP)
Toll-free 1-866-665-2117

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, North Carolina started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about North Carolina's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in North Carolina

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in North Carolina and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in North Carolina.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's North Carolina health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for North Carolina.

Health insurance plan report cards for North Carolina

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for North Carolina health insurance plan report cards.

North Carolina government health insurance resources

North Carolina Medicaid – serves about 20 percent of the state's population, whose low income prevents them from purchasing health insurance in the private market.

North Carolina Health Choice (NCHC) for Children – for families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford rising health insurance premiums so they are able to get free or reduced price comprehensive health care for their children.

Non-profit site(s) of interest to North Carolinans

The North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NC IOM) – an independent, non-profit organization that serves as a non-political source of health policy analysis and advice in North Carolina.