North Carolina’s infant mortality rate, already one of the worst in the nation, will continue to rise with the expiration of tax credits that kept ACA insurance coverage affordable, an OBGYN said Tuesday.
Black babies in North Carolina die at three times the rate of white infants, a key factor that drives the state’s high overall infant death rate.
“Losing health insurance means that we’re going to see an increase in the racial disparities among maternal mortality and infant mortality,” said Dr. Makunda Abdul-Mbacke, who practices in Rockingham County and southwestern Virginia.
Abdul-Mbacke spoke to reporters Tuesday in a news conference organized by the Committee to Protect Health Care.
Federal tax credits approved in 2022 that subsided Affordable Care Act premiums are expiring, and ACA health insurance marketplace premiums are rising. The tax credits made health insurance affordable for millions of Americans. Now, millions are expected to drop their health insurance because they can’t afford it.
More than 975,000 North Carolinians have health insurance through an ACA marketplace health plan this year, compared to 670,223 in 2022, according to KFF.
A U.S. Senate vote to extend the subsidies failed last week. House Speaker Mike Johnson has scotched a vote in his chamber on extending ACA subsidies, States Newsroom reported. Republican leaders have said the subsidies are too expensive to continue.
Dr. Rob Davidson, executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care and an emergency physician in west Michigan, said he blames leaders in Washington for failing to help people keep their coverage.
“They voted to let premiums skyrocket,” he said, rather than ensuring their constituents could continue to see their doctors.
Abdul-Mbacke also anticipates worsening health care disparities in cancer and heart disease.
“Access to care is the very basic first step in dealing with any of these health equity issues,” she said. “You can’t have equity if you have no access.”
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