DURHAM, N.C. — New Year's Day marked one month since expanded Medicaid went into effect in North Carolina – allowing 600,000 additional people to become eligible for health coverage. Now individuals making $20,000 a year or less and families around $34,000 a year, can have access to this medical insurance plan.
Applications have been flooding in all month at the Department of Health and Human Services in Durham where 22,000 additional people can now apply for coverage.
“People don't understand when you don't have health insurance, the struggle that places on your family,” Maggie Cveticanin, the Director of Durham County DSS, said. “You are having to juggle rent or food on the table versus going to the doctor and getting critical care that you need.”
Working in Medicaid may not seem like the most riveting job on the surface, but it’s not just a passion for Cynthia Cason, the Interim Assistant Director of the Medicaid Division in Durham. She believes it’s her purpose to help, so much so that she came out of retirement to help process the additional applications.
“It is my goal that everybody in Durham County that's eligible for Medicaid receives it,” Cason said.
On day one of Medicaid expansion, 300,000 people were automatically added to the Medicaid rolls in the state. The work now is to get the second half of those eligible enrolled.
“As of December 14th, over 39,000 people had prescriptions filled from December 1 to December 14th across the state of North Carolina,” Cveticanin said. “That 39,000 in 15 days was to me, really shows how much this was needed for the state of North Carolina.”
The NCDHHS says the best way to apply is online, but you can also apply in-person, by phone or mailed applications. The processing time for applications can be up to 45 days.