In a report today (video below) from Hyde County, North Carolina reporter Bryan Mims (WRAL) shows the rural impact of North Carolina’s decision to not – so far at least – expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.  A small hospital closure, largely due to the failure to take the available federal Medicaid money, has rippled through the area crossing racial and class lines and makes for a very compelling news story.  Across the country, similar stories are being told in more rural areas of states that have refused federal money to close the coverage gap as the impact of individual state decisions to reject federal Medicaid funding becomes clear.  For example, see this recent story on the problems the Medicaid coverage gap is causing for residents in Ogden, Utah.  Perhaps not coincidentally, both Utah’s and North Carolina’s Governors are now moving towards state-crafted plans to accept the federal Medicaid money.  And stories like this one from Wyoming outline the “no Medicaid expansion” problem for small town hospitals there as well.

See the entire report and text from North Carolina station WRAL here.