There is a lot of confusion about how Medicaid expansion is paid for. Medicaid expansion is part of the ACA (Affordable Care Act) of 2010. Medicaid expansion is paid for from a percentage (3.8%) of every person’s insurance premium.

This insurance premium tax has been collected since 2010 regardless of if your state expanded Medicaid or not. North Carolina has been forced to send our collection of this money, totaling $1.6 billion, to the federal government since 2010 and has received nothing in return for it.

Medicaid expansion is a federal program that is not funded by state or federal personal income tax. If an individual state chooses to participate, it is required to pay 10% for the program.
North Carolina and some other states require the hospitals in their state to pay that 10%. The hospitals can afford to do this because around 40% of the free care they provide can now be paid by Medicaid, due to expansion. Also, rural hospitals receive federal funds to help them (HASP funds). Atrium Stanly had been losing $2 million a month, but because of Medicaid expansion they are now profitable. The hospital will now be able to keep their birthing center open as a result.

It should be good to know that every Republican in the House and Senate voted for Medicaid expansion. One reason is because the federal government, in return for expanding Medicaid, has returned the $1.6 billion to North Carolina that they have collected since 2010. North Carolina is spending that money on mental health.

Another reason is that there is not one dime of state or federal personal income tax being put into Medicaid expansion. Under Republican leadership, North Carolina has cut your state personal income tax rate over the last nine years from 7.75% to 4.6% and is on track to cut it to 2.99%.

North Carolina is the 40th state to expand Medicaid.

Rep. Wayne Sasser

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The cost of Medicaid expansion appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

The Uwharrie Players have done it again.

The opening night of “Honky Tonk Angels” was a tour de force. I have been attending performances by the Uwharrie Players since 1975 and found this to be one of my favorites. The cast is small, only three ladies, but what performances they deliver.

The songs are well known and loved and much humor ensues as they embark on their life altering quests. This is a show you don’t want to miss. There are three more performances this weekend at the Albemarle Neighborhood Theatre. Please go. you will be so glad you did.

Rick Johnson

Albemarle

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Bravo appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

NC’s Amber Alerts system is broken and nobody talks about it.

I cut it off on my phone a few days ago after I got woke up in the middle of the night by an alert that was already cancelled hours before, like usual. I have never received an Amber Alert that was not already cancelled hours, and even days, earlier. And usually I would I get repeats of the already cancelled alerts.

I cut the alerts off on my phone, and it troubled me to do so. Then one was issued in my hometown.

I saw it on a friend’s phone. I looked that one up and there was little information, no pictures. Then I found a Facebook post from six hours prior.

What are we doing here?

John Whitley
Albemarle

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The system is broken appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

Individuals and families enjoyed the Downtown Albemarle Festival the afternoon of Oct. 21.

The post SNAP SHOTS: Downtown Albemarle Festival appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

I am reminded of taking my children to the circus when our oldest was about 7. The show starts, performers in the three rings. Our daughter pats me on the leg, looks up at me and says, “It’s ok mom. They are dressed like that because they are performers!”

If you are worried about the children, they know, drag queens are merely performers in costume. Some of us are old enough to remember Corporal Klinger on the TV show “M*A*S*H.” His chosen attire was a dress. That didn’t make him a demon or dangerous. Most of us watched the great Robin Williams perform as a woman in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” before that Dustin Hoffman was “Tootsie.” My father told us of a man in his town who wore dresses, went off to fight in WWII. When he returned, he put on his dress and went about his business.

LGBTQ is not new. It is not deviant or dangerous. If you believe in God, and all humans are created in God’s image, it makes no sense to spread hate and fear toward a particular group of humans.

All people should be treated with dignity and respect. Propagating and condoning this hate speech disguised as religious, only makes our world more dangerous. There will be increasing hate crimes against the LBGTQ community if legislation is continued to be supported by prejudices espoused in the name of God.

If you are worried about grooming, sex crimes against children, look no further than the Catholic Church, as we all are aware of decades of cover-up. But it isn’t just that church, the Houston Chronicle uncovered years of cover-up by the Southern Baptists. They listed at least 30 church officials in N.C. among the hundreds of officials charged with sex crimes.

The Boy Scouts of America has for years covered up claims of sex crimes, this has recently been reported.

Know that drag queens have no major leadership or organization to protect them. If there was a scandal, it would be known.

As a pediatrician, I have counseled many children and families as the children identify as LGBTQ. The hate speech, religious rhetoric and political agendas make life so much more difficult for these families.

There are young people who feel they shouldn’t be alive as they are so hated. Their families are afraid for their children and for themselves in this volatile environment Again, the church is no place to find such hate.

Remember when you vote to ban drag, it will have far reaching and unforeseen consequences, not in the least of which is increased hate crimes. Our community will not be safe for members of the LGBTQ community. Whether you want to admit this or not, you all know someone from that community.

As for the children, they know, they get it. “They are just in costume.”

Elaine M. Coats, MD, FAAP

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Why are we here? appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

This weekend, Oct 14-15, we are witnessing another, new, terrible war in our world, this one between Palestine and Israel. It’s just another one between people whose disagreements and hatreds have been going on for centuries. And it’s awful, heartbreaking for us to watch.

Is that really what some ultra conservative leaders and TV folks in our country have called for in recent days? Do they really want us, the United States of America, to engage in another civil war here?

If so, they are so ignorant, it’s beyond belief how they graduated from their history classes where even an elementary student learns of the horrors of that war.

My father served in the Army infantry in World War II. You followers of those people calling for war now, do you really want the horrors of that war to take place here?

My brother served in the Vietnam War. Do you really want the horrors of that war to take place here?

As they say, “Words matter!” When you call for your followers to rise up in war, when you call on them to provoke violence, you encourage some to actually commit violence. There are multiple instances of those types of crimes happening right now in our country because of their ignorant calls for violence.

My leader is God who through his beloved son calls all of us who listen to him to live our lives in love, in kindness, in peace, forgiving, listening to the other, respecting each other.

I don’t know who you follow, those of you calling for violence and war, but it surely isn’t the God of love.

Nancy C. Bryant
Norwood

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Do you really want a civil war? appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

In response to the data sets listed in the Sept. 8 article detailing reasons for “low grade level proficiency” in Stanly County Schools, I find it interesting that no one ever asks what the “proficiency” data of the Stanly County Schools administrators, teachers, coaches, etc., were when they were in school?

I can’t help but wonder if we should request the data from their school days be posted publicly. I can hear the vehement “No” being screamed at that suggestion.

Then it might become patently obvious that a C-minus type student 20 years ago, who remained a C-minus student in college and became a NC licensed school teacher or administrator, might only be able to produce C-minus type students today even if their students perfectly attended, instructional money was in ample supply, they remained for several years in the system before moving on, etc.

So, after looking at the data summaries offered in the article, I ask, what was the average college/post-secondary GPA of all of Stanly County Schools paid employees, especially in their “core” classes pertaining to whatever subject they currently teach? What were the Praxis scores? (Professional Licensing Test used in NC.)

My point is not to impugn lack of effort or conviction in pedagogical instruction in local government schools, but simply to point out that sometimes mediocrity can only begat mediocrity, or even worse, a type of subpar mediocrity.

We could even extrapolate this further to ask what was the “proficiency” of the State School Board, the local school board, the End of Grade test writers?

If these individuals in our schooling systems, employed or appointed via elections, were not so “proficient” themselves, maybe it has nothing to do with absences, turnover, lost “educational” time, or other excuses offered us via “data.”

Maybe it is more likely we should reinterpret the famous Latin phrase of the Roman poet Juvenal in his work satires: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” Only, this time we should translate it not as “who watches the watchers” but as “who taught these teachers” or “who administered these administrators.”

Daniel Poole
Oakboro

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Were teachers, administrators proficient in school? appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

Editor’s Note: The sender has address this to county commissioners:

Stanly County: “A place to visit, a place to live, a place to love,” so the signs say.

My husband and I came from Charlotte, just a few blocks from CMC Main Hospital, 17 years ago, to search for the land that we believed we were called to buy and to protect forever.

Elaine Hollins, Century 21, found the acreage that we believed was “calling” us. We moved to the land, put it under conservation easement with Three Rivers Land Trust and have never looked back.

Our family’s message to you now is: Stop, stop, stop the developmental sprawl that is creeping inexorably to this beautiful land.

Do not allow any uncaring developers to cut down every living tree and plant and level the lovely hills of this land anywhere and everywhere without a care for the land and the creatures that live there and for you and me to have to see every day like Charlotte — sprawling housing and buildings taking over almost every bit of green space.

Yes, we must have more housing as the population increases. Yes, we realize that some families believe they have no other choice but to sell their land to developers, but there are ways to build and develop that do not destroy and level those lovely hills that rob you and me of its rural beauty.

Some years ago, Ron and I founded Friends of the Land of Stanly County when we saw that little was happening to preserve our rural scenic beauty of life.

We brought in nationally renowned architect Randall Arendt to speak to people from Stanly and surrounding counties to show us the very best way to both provide housing and to preserve our lands.

Instead of building houses all over 100-200 acres, build them onto a small area, leaving the rest for all the green life and critters to live there together with the families to enjoy.

That type housing value is known to increase.

Now you have more housing and are preserving the rural landscape for everyone.

It’s a win, win, win.

Let’s not drive through our beloved county to endless sprawl like Charlotte and like some of the new developments right here already.

Protect our county’s land now, before it’s too late.

NOTE: We have just now learned from that the Council of Governments plans to educate our region’s leaders and developers about preserving open space they call “conservation subdivisions.”

Our current commissioners have received the idea positively.

There will be further discussions and presentations soon — not a moment too soon.

Nancy Bryant
Norwood

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Protect our land appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

Your recent column by Dean Ridings, CEO of America’s Newspapers, was very important to encourage the public to support all local newspapers, but, of course, our own Stanly News and Press.

The headline was “Local news is good for business,” and while very true, I believe that local newspapers are even better for our community and our democracy.

It is so puzzling to hear some local folks say, well, there isn’t much for me in the paper so I’m not going to renew or purchase a new subscription.

Even though my husband and I don’t recognize many names in the paper personally, there is a lot to learn about this county by reading the articles, the advertising, sports and other sections.

There is much joy to share about personal stories of celebrations, and sadness to share about people’s lives hurt by tragedy.

How would people in Stanly know, fairly, about our local issues, our elections, our county commissioners, our local leaders, if we didn’t have SNAP?

SNAP is our market square for sharing the lives of the people of Stanly County.

Without SNAP we would be the poorer, both in our community and in our democracy.

Nancy Bryant
Norwood

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Life is better with SNAP appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.

In one of his cartoons, pastor turned artist David Hayward, “The Naked Pastor,” has Jesus say to a group of Bible-carrying people: “the difference between me and you is you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.”

This quote seems to sum up the perspectives shared in the letters published by the SNAP this past Saturday in response to the recent county council decision regarding “adult entertainment.”

First, the cartoon is a work of art which illustrates the perspectives shared by several leaders of arts organizations in Stanly. I concur with the viewpoints indicating that art, whatever the medium, has many functions beyond entertainment.

At its best, art should be provocative; it should challenge our sensibilities and encourage us to move out of our comfort zones and see life from a different perspective. As a retired music therapist, I also concur that the arts should be safe spaces for people to express their creativity without the risk of moral judgment.

Second, the cartoon illustrates the need, as one of my pastors says, to read and interpret the scriptures through a lens of love. Anyone can “proof text” scripture to support a point of view, and unfortunately this approach is often used to weaponize scripture in an attempt to shut down differing points of view or to label them as “evil.”

As a practicing Christian, I believe that the most important passage in the Gospels is found in Matthew 22:37-40 which features the greatest commandments to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…soul…and mind…and to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

Jesus lived a life of radical, unconditional love, and that love was lavished especially on those who were marginalized in Jesus’ own society.

Where does Jesus’ radical love invite and challenge those of us who claim to follow Him?

Is it a demonstration of radical, unconditional love to conflate “prurient interests” (however defined) with the lives of those among us who claim non-conforming gender identities?

What might it take for those of us who identify as cis-gender to recognize that these individuals also are made in God’s image and to accept the gifts that God might offer to us through them?

Anne Lipe
Richfield

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Words, much like art, left to interpretation appeared first on The Stanly News & Press.