With the Health Plan circling the drain, Republican General Assembly leadership is leaving state employees high and dry

Charlotte, NC — Last week, incumbent State Treasurer Dale Folwell shocked approximately nobody when he told reporters that our State Health Plan is about to be flat broke. As anyone who’s paid attention over the last decade of Republican governance can see, the strategy of “slash funding, slash revenues, and pray” that has been Tim Moore and Phil Berger’s north star is draining our Health Plan of its reserves and threatening to leave our state employees high and dry within the next two years.

When even Dale Folwell is taking his own party to task over their extreme fiscal irresponsibility, you know that, as Treasurer Folwell put it, “This is not a crisis that’s going away.”

The North Carolina State Health Plan serves nearly half a million active employees and dependents and more than 200,000 retirees. A public sector employer of some kind is the largest employer in 61 out of North Carolina’s 100 counties, and is in the top five employers in all 100 counties. Every single North Carolinian depends on our public employees, and our public employees depend on a high-quality, financially solvent State Health Plan.

“It doesn’t matter what policy you champion or what bills you pass,” said Rep. Wesley Harris, a PhD Economist, three-term State Representative, and the Democratic nominee for State Treasurer. “You can’t have good government if you don’t have good people working for the government. Without that, nothing functions, ever. And with one in four public positions currently sitting vacant, if we can’t even offer prospective employees reliable health care, we can’t attract the high-quality employees we need to come work for the government.”

“The deal we make with our state employees is, you might not ever make as much working for the State as you would in the private sector, but you’ll be taken care of. You’ll get great benefits. You’ll get great healthcare,” Harris continued. “This is a self-inflicted wound due to Republican leadership. There is zero reason our state employees should not have great healthcare. ZERO. It’s called public service, but our legislative leaders are determined to make it public sacrifice.”

Team Harris agrees with Treasurer Folwell: “We need [the General Assembly] to fully fund the State Health Plan based on the cost. Period.”

The Republican Party’s General Assembly leadership must fund the State Health Plan. They fail to do so at North Carolina’s peril, and if they won’t step up to the plate and invest in North Carolinians, then North Carolinians should elect new representatives who will.