Pace to the Capitol: North Carolina
While folks were out and about on election day, MEAction North Carolina took the opportunity to set up a symbolic bed in front of the state’s historic capitol building and educate passersby about myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and Medicaid, as the first stop on our Pace to the Capitol campaign.
The advocates asked North Carolinians to submit a public comment on Medicaid, and passed out over 75 fliers about the severity of ME, and the need for research funding.
We were thrilled to get to speak with North Carolina Attorney General, Jeff Jackson. He said everything we were asking for sounded reasonable to him and we were grateful to get to share our stories and educate more people on what needs to happen at the state and national level.
Why MEAction North Carolina focused on Medicaid:
North Carolina Medicaid released its new policy to implement the federal government's H.R.1 Medicaid work requirements, classifying ME/CFS as a tier 2 condition. This means that a diagnosis of ME/CFS alone is not enough to automatically secure a work requirement exemption. This is a problem because it does not reflect the harsh reality that many people with ME are too sick to navigate the process of seeking an exemption, and may lose their Medicaid health coverage. If you know anyone in North Carolina, please encourage them to leave a public comment to protect our community from losing Medicaid. You can find more information on the public comment here.
Join the Campaign!
This is just our first stop on our Pace to the Capitol campaign. We will have many more state and local actions, upcoming events and email campaigns in our campaign to raise awareness about ME and Long COVID, secure research funding and protect our Medicaid! Read more about ways to get involved in our campaign over the next 7 months, leading up to May 12th.
And, if you haven’t registered for Pace to the Capitol, please do it today!
For those who are willing and able, we’d love for you to set up a peer-to-peer fundraiser or make a donation to our Pace to the Capitol fundraiser. We need your help to continue this work!
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