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Good morning to you. With North Carolina recently rated as having the most expensive health care in the country, state lawmakers have passed a sweeping bipartisan bill aimed at lowering costs and improving transparency for patients across North Carolina. The legislation is House Bill 434 titled the Lower Healthcare Costs Act, and it was passed in a third reading in the North Carolina Senate on Wednesday. This bill has obviously a lot of bipartisan support with a vote of 42 to 3. The three no votes were Democrat Representatives Gail Attacock out of Wake County, Representative Sophia Chitlick out of Durham, and Representative Natalie Murdoch out of Durham.
So all three of those reps out of the Triangle area. The North Carolina House passed the Lower Health Care Cost Act at the end of April by a vote of 109 to 1. The lone descending vote there, another Democrat out of Durham County, Representative Verena Alliston. The bill's primary sponsors include Representatives John Bell, Tim Reeder, Tricia Cotham from Mecklenburg County, and Grant Campbell from Cabeiris, with a list of a pretty extensive list of co-sponsors as well. The legislation seeks to rein in rising health care expenses by reforming prior authorization processes, mandating pricing transparency, enhancing billing protections, and selectively dismantling portions of the state's Certificate of Need Laws, or CON as you may have heard them, which is a regulatory framework long criticized for limiting competition in various health care markets across North Carolina.
One of the bill's most notable provisions is that elimination of con requirements for rehabilitation facilities, diagnosis centers, and in-home hospice services. These targeted rollbacks are intended to make it easier for new providers to enter those markets or expand the services that they offer without having to go through a pretty rigorous process and receiving state approval, a requirement that critics say protects hospital monopolies and suppresses innovation. While the bill stops short of fully repealing certificate of need laws, which still apply at hospitals, surgical centers and other high cost services, it represents a measured shift towards deregulation of certificate of need. House Bill 434 also takes aim at pricing practices by requiring hospitals and surgical centers to report average self-pay charges for the most common inpatient, outpatient, and imaging procedures. Those figures would be published quarterly by the Department of Health and Human Services with noncompliance caring financial penalties tied to executive compensation for the health care system.
According to the legislature, pennies would amount to zero point zero one cents of the facility CEO's annual daily salary, not to exceed two thousand dollars a day. In addition, the legislation standardizes prior authorization procedures for insurers, ensuring that they use evidence-based criteria and make timely decisions that are, quote, developed in accordance with nationally recognized medical standards, evidence-based guidelines, and best practices. Under this legislation, insurance companies' failure to respond within 24 hours for urgent care or 72 hours for non-urgent care would result in automatic approval, meaning insurance companies will no longer be able to drag their feet on giving you, as a person needing some sort of surgery or medical procedure, the authorization to do so. Insurers would also need to provide up-to-date, publicly available lists of service requirements for prior authorization and allow appeals to be reviewed only by qualified in-state specialists with no conflicts of interest. The legislation outlines that any appeal for coverage must be reviewed.
By a physician who is A, licensed in North Carolina, B, practices in the same or similar specialty, C, has at least five years of clinical experience, and D, was not involved in the initial adverse determination.
So really has to be kind of separated from that decision-making process. The bill also strengthens protections for patients navigating complex billing systems. Among its mandates are advance notice when out-of-network providers may be involved in care, plain language, and itemized billing before any collection efforts, as well as a good faith estimate for upcoming procedures. This is a pretty massive piece of legislation as North Carolina continues to struggle with surging health care costs and a major impact on its citizens. We've got additional details on this story over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
The headline: Lawmakers Okay Health Bill to slash costs undo select CON regulations. Again, you can read that at Carolina. CarolinaJournal.com, where the time is now 510, News Talk, 1110, 993, WBT. Immigration continues to be a very hot-button political issue, whether we're talking about the federal government or the state government. To get some more details on that this morning, Brianna Kramer, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour.
Brianna, it looks like some vulnerable Democrats are being targeted with some pretty expensive anti-immigration ads as it relates to their stance on that. What's going on, and what are you tracking in Raleigh this morning? Yes, Hainik, the North Carolina House Republican caucus has launched a paid advertising campaign targeting several Democrat lawmakers that are in vulnerable districts across North Carolina who have put immigration policies not at the forefront of the General Assembly agendas. They are not voting in favor of some of the Republicans' immigration bills. Actually, one in particular this week was passed in the House, but Democrats did not favor it.
And so Republicans in response are going ahead with an ad campaign to target some of these more vulnerable Democrats. You know, it's interesting. The immigration debate obviously was a large part of the presidential election in Brianna. That has a trickle-down effect. Those national issues, even if they're not super relevant in a state, do tend to trickle down and have an impact.
But regardless of that, when you've looked at some political polling that's been out over the last couple of months, some of these deportation efforts are polling relatively popular with the American people. Seems like it could be a winning message to use against Democrats that are not in favor of these policies at all. Yes, that's right. And that's why the General Assembly Republicans have been pushing this session for several pieces of legislation dealing with immigration enforcement, dealing with ICE, cooperation with federal ICE, and issuing these detainers across North Carolina. As we've discussed before, there are some key counties across North Carolina.
In the Mecklenburg County, for example, around the Raleigh area, where some sheriffs have chosen not to cooperate with these ICE detainers, these detainer requests from federal authorities. And so, this has been an ongoing conversation we've been having in North Carolina. And so, Republicans are continuing to crack down on it through pieces of legislation.
So, there's actually two bills that they were discussing, Republicans, when they were talking about Democrats not being in support of immigration policies.
So, one is House Bill 318, that's the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act, and then the other one. That was first introduced in the Senate is Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act. And essentially, both of these bills just aim to tighten up cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. And actually, one thing to note in one of the bills that passed this week is that it allows citizens to go after their jurisdictions, their counties, if they're not following all of immigration policy, if they're considering themselves a sanctuary city or jurisdiction, their local immunity is waived.
So it would allow citizens harmed by illegal immigrants to sue them. And we've seen some of those stories back in the month of April. You had a horrific situation unfolding in Raleigh where family members were kidnapped and driven 45 minutes an hour away. A husband left duct taped in his house, all of that at the hands of individuals illegally in the United States. But, Brianna, the timeline on this is rather interesting.
We are not re-electing members of the General Assembly this year. They're on a two-year election cycle. Those names won't be on a ballot until November of 2026. Any insight as to why these ads are coming out so early? Is it fair to say that?
People's attention spans are so short, they won't remember a political ad running now in November of next year. Yeah, I think that's an interesting point you bring up because this is very early. I mean, we're into June, halfway through the year, and the conversation is going to pivot to midterm elections pretty soon here. And I think House Republicans are trying to get ahead probably in their messaging and strategy when it comes to midterms because they lost one seat. That cost them the super majority in this past election.
And so they're one seat short right now. And I think they're going to do everything they can to try to get that seat back in 2026. And so I think they obviously have been planning some strategy for how they're going to do that. And so they're going after very vulnerable Democrats. And that's something we're going to see pick up.
As we get closer to another round of elections. But what it comes down to is the data and the numbers and looking at different districts across North Carolina and where they can pick up seats. And so the Democrats they're announcing that they're targeting so far. Are Representatives Lindsey Prather of Buncombe County, Brian Cohn of Granville, Garland Pierce of Scotland, and Dante Pittman of Wilson?
So these Democrat representatives voted against the immigration bills. And actually, Representative Dante Pittman decided to just abstain from voting on one of the bills. And so that is something that Republicans also criticized was not even taking accountability for where he stands, on which side of the fence. We've got some examples of what some of these ads look like, plus the names of all those representatives that you just went through. Where can folks get that this morning?
Yes, you can read the full article on CarolinaJournal.com. Brianna Kramer joins us this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:22. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Good Friday morning to you, News Talk 1110, 99.3 WBT.
Don't forget, if you miss any portion of our show here, weekday mornings 5 to 6, you can check out the Carolina Journal News Hour podcast in your favorite podcast app. Just search for the show, tap that subscribe or follow button, and take a new program with you each and every weekday morning. It's the Carolina Journal News Hour podcast. Download and subscribe now. Turning our attention to some international news this morning as it relates to trade.
President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in a lengthy call amid economic and national security friction regarding trade between Washington and Beijing. In a post on his Truth Social platform yesterday, the president wrote, I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi of China discussing some of the international interactions of our recent trade deals and agreed to a trade an agreement to a potential trade deal the call lasted approximately one and a half hours and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries the president noted that the conversation focused almost entirely on trade and that Xi invited the United States president and first lady Melania Trump to visit China Trump also said he extended an invitation to Xi and his wife to visit the United States. Chinese media first reported the call between the two leaders on Thursday and claimed that the call occurred per Trump's request. White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC News on Sunday that Trump was expected to talk with the Chinese president at some point this week. He said that on Sunday of last week, so that has come to fruition.
The call comes nearly a week after Trump condemned China for violating an initial trade agreement. That the United States and China hashed out in May and a day after Trump said that Xi was extremely hard to make a deal with. The negotiation led both countries to agree that the United States would ramp down its tariffs against Chinese imports from the incredibly high level of 145% that they were at recently within the last couple of months to just 30%. With that deal, China would also cut its tariffs against the U. S.
imports into their country from 125% to 10%. But late last week, Trump accused China of not holding its end of the bargain, although he refrained from disclosing some of the specifics. He mentioned that one week ago. U.S. Trade Representative Jamie Greer said on Friday in an interview that China had failed to lift its non-tariff barriers as outlined in the deal.
With Greer noting, The United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slowrolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable and has to be addressed.
Meanwhile, China pressed the U.S. reversed reversed course and addressed its own mistakes with a Chinese embassy spokesperson saying, quote, China once again urges the United States to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China, and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva.
So you've got a little bit of what seems to be finger-pointing going on between the two nations as of right now over whether they are actually following through on their respective tariff rates that are supposed to be in effect for was originally 90 days. That does continue this morning. The tariff industry obviously continues to be a major discussion here across the state of North Carolina. We'll continue to track the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Turning our attention to some statewide news this morning, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has once again ruled against two Asheville journalists.
Who were convicted of trespassing during a 2021 protest at Ashton Park in Asheville? In a new unpublished opinion, a unanimous three-judge panel rejected their First Amendment defense, stating that the city's 10 p.m. park curfew regulates conduct, not speech. The two journalists, Medalia Bliss and Melissa Cote, reporters for the Asheville Blade, remained in the park after a curfew despite police warnings, claiming that they were there to cover a protest that was happening at the time. Officers arrested them on Christmas night after repeated orders to leave.
A jury found them guilty in 2023, and they were each fined $100 for their conduct. The court ruled that their news gathering was not protected by the First Amendment under these circumstances and upheld the jury's instructions as fair. Judges Jeff Carpenter, Julie Flood, and Michael Stalding agreed that the curfew was a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction that was not protected. They were not protected under their First Amendment rights. This multi-day protest started back on December 19th, 2021, at the Asheville Public Ashton Park.
The purpose of the protest was to demand the city allow sanctuary camping in the park for the local homeless population. In response to that, the city did put in that 10 p.m. curfew for the park, and police repeatedly for days warned protesters that if they were still in the park and still hanging around that area after 10 p.m., they could be subject to arrest. The protests stretched all the way into Christmas Day, and it was shortly after. 10 p.m.
on Christmas Day when both of those reporters or both of those reporters and multiple other individuals were arrested for ignoring that curfew and staying in the park in defiance of the city ordinance, the park curfew that had been put in place. We've covered a couple of stories over the last couple of months as it relates to kind of freedom of speech and First Amendment as it relates to journalism across the state of North Carolina. We've got some additional backstory and some more details on this story over on our website this morning. The headline, Appeals Court rejects appeal from Asheville journalists arrested at protest. You can read those details at CarolinaJournal.com.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. With North Carolina ranking as the most expensive state for healthcare across the United States, lawmakers in Raleigh have been working on various pieces of legislation over the last couple of months to deal with that. They passed a major bipartisan bill to cut costs and improve transparency for patients across the state. The Lower Healthcare Cost Act passed the Senate in a 42-3 vote on Wednesday, following a 109-1 vote in the House a couple of weeks ago. Sponsored by a bipartisan group, including Representatives John Bell, Tricia Cotham, and Grant Campbell, the legislation targets hospital monopolies, insurance red tape, and surprise billing that many people deal with.
Key provisions of this legislation include a partial repeal of certificate of need laws. For rehab centers, diagnosis facilities, and hospice services, which are intended to increase competition in those sectors. Another key provision includes price transparency requirements, forcing hospitals and surgical centers to publicly report average self-pay costs for common procedures that they perform. Prior authorization reforms is also in this legislation. It would require insurance decisions to follow national medical standards and speeding up of urgent care approvals.
Those would have to be done within 24 hours, as well as some billing protections like advance notice for out-of-network charges, clear itemized bills, and good faith cost estimates from insurance companies. Violations of transparency rules could result in daily fines for the healthcare systems. Most of the changes as this legislation continues to move forward would take effect between 2026 and 2027. The North Carolina Carolina Healthcare Association has been pushing back against this legislation, saying that federal law already offers similar protections. Still, with healthcare prices 28% above the national average in North Carolina, pressure for reform remains very high health care costs when you break those down.
And many times are described as budget busters when individuals have to go in for unexpected health care problems and end up being laden with tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical debt. It is a serious issue for families across the state of North Carolina, regardless of what the Healthcare Association says. We've seen multiple reports over the last year or so describing North Carolina and ranking North Carolina's health care prices. As I noted, they are 28% above the national average. We've got more details on this bipartisan legislation over on our website this morning.
The headline: Lawmakers OK Health Bill to Slash Costs, Undue Select Certificate of Need Regulations, and more. Again, all of that available over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 539, News Talk 1110-993, WBT. We are keeping an eye on some energy legislation that is working its way through the North Carolina General Assembly. Brianna Kramer, CarolinaJournal.com joins us with details this morning. The Carolina Carbon Plan is something that has been discussed over the last four or five years, Brianna.
We've got some movement as it relates to some of those goals in that plan. What are you learning this morning? Yes, so the Power Bill Reduction Act was introduced in the House Regulatory Reform Committee on Wednesday this week. And really, what this bill is centering around is repealing the 2030 interim carbon reduction goal that has been in place, that power companies have been working to get to by 2030, this deadline for a 70% reduction in carbon emissions. And so this bill is seeking to repeal that goal while also maintaining the long-term 2050 carbon neutrality goal.
But really, removing that 2030 benchmark to allow. companies more time when it comes to energy sources and the development of different green energy sources and then also as a cost factor when it comes to ratepayers.
So the estimate is that it would save customers nearly fifteen billion dollars You know, and I'm glad you bring up that $15 billion figure.
Some folks might be scratching their head wondering why we'd be looking at removing this interim goal because it was just a couple of years ago that the Republican legislature moved forward with this 2050 carbon plan with that 2030 interim goal that you're talking about. But Brandon, we're talking about massive amounts of money that are going to have to be burdened by individuals that are buying their electrical service from the major electrical utility across North Carolina. Yes.
So Representative Dean Arp of Union County, during the committee meeting, he called it a collaborative effort between utilities, the manufacturers and consumer advocates. And this is really to refine the legislative goals to save ratepayers Money.
So, really, the state is growing fast. He said American manufacturers are eager to open up more plants in North Carolina instead of shipping jobs overseas, which is a good thing. But we need to meet the current demand, the electrical demand from residential, industrial, and manufacturing jobs coming to North Carolina.
So, what this requires is new, reliable energy, but also at a low cost.
So, there are several factors at play right now. The reliable energy part and the costs are two very important pieces they are focused on. And so, that's why this bill really is centering around getting rid of that 2030 goal so that it allows some more time.
Well, and you look at reliability and cost, and obviously the big push from folks on the left side of the political aisle is wind and solar power. Inherently, with those two forms, Branna, you've got a lack of reliability due to the fact that the sun is not shining, the panels are not generating, if the wind's not blowing, the turbine isn't spinning.
So, there's been a lot of criticism there.
However, nuclear energy is something that seems to maybe be on the upward trend in North Carolina. A lot more discussion over the last couple of years about bringing on small modular nuclear reactors, some of which are being built by GE right here in North Carolina. Right, absolutely. There's a report from the John Locke Foundation detailing the different sources of energy and reliability and the costs. Like you mentioned, solar, extremely expensive and very unreliable.
And so I think there's a lot of debate still on this, and there's a lot of expenses. And so, when we are looking also to the federal government and seeing all these cuts that remain an ongoing conversation, we're also hearing more talk about potential cuts to the green energy. Push that's been going on for years now. That's a lot of the funding behind this green push is because of government's involvement. And so, you know, a question that remains is: can these industries survive without government backing them up?
So that's one aspect of it. And then some other items in this bill, there's a financing requirement that reduces the cost of constructing new natural gas and nuclear plants by 5%.
So again, focused on natural gas and nuclear energy. And then it also protects consumers from rate hikes and unnecessary and unexpected costs associated with fuel costs. And this is something legislators went into detail about explaining during the committee meeting that occurred this week. And now this bill is heading to the House Rules Committee. And so it will likely be on the House floor.
in the coming weeks. And this is something that has already passed in the Senate.
So we're seeing action on it in the House now. And so both sides of the General Assembly are working to push this bill forward. And I'm glad you brought up those subsidies because it has been a major push, especially in wind and solar. And, Brianna, again, we're talking about that interim deadline of 2030. And while folks may look at their calendar this morning and say, oh, well, you still have five more years, when you're talking about making major shifts as it relates to electrical generation and electrical delivery, five years is not really a long time at all.
These many of these plants and facilities, after all of the permitting and everything that has to go forward, could take five, ten years to get built.
So it seems like it's going to be here sooner rather than later. Absolutely. And what's also worth noting is that there was a fair amount of advocates there at the committee meeting to express their support for this legislation. And it was interesting how there wasn't a whole lot of opposition or any opposition from Most of the speakers, public comment section. And so, you know, we had the NC chamber there, and Duke Energy was there, and so was the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, Donald Bryson.
He described the bill as energy policy grounded in reality and responsible governance. Also, one more thing I'll point out really quickly is Duke Energy pointed to estimates that show an eight-fold increase in the demand for energy in North Carolina. And I thought that was a very significant statistic: an eight-fold increase in energy demand here, which comes as businesses come here, our population's growing, and the demand for energy is also growing. Yes, we just saw recently Amazon announcing that they're going to be building a ten billion dollar AI computer data center here in North Carolina. A lot of electrical service required for that to take place as well.
Brandon, you've got some additional quotes from that meeting. Where can folks get those details this morning? Yeah, you can read the full article on CarolinaJournal.com. Brendan Kramer joins us this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest.
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News Talk 1110-99-3 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Friday morning to you. The North Carolina House Republican caucus has launched a paid advertising campaign targeting several Democrat lawmakers in vulnerable districts who they say have put politics ahead of public safety by voting against key immigration enforcement bills. In a press release earlier this week, House Republicans said that the new campaign will focus on, quote, vulnerable House Democrats in competitive districts.
Representatives Lindsey Prather out of Buncombe County, Brian Cohn out of Granville, Garland Pierce out of Scotland, and Dante Pittman out of Wilson are the four that the House caucus has announced. The House GOP efforts come after they lost one seat in the November 2024 election that cost them their supermajority. Majority, which gave them the power to override governor at the time, Roy Cooper. All four legislators either opposed or abstained from voting on two major bills pushed by House Republicans. The first piece of legislation, House Bill 318, that's the Criminal Legal Alien Enforcement Act, and the second, Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act.
Both of those pieces of legislation aim to tighten cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, with House Republicans arguing that the measures are necessary for public safety. Republicans say that Democrats have aligned themselves with policies that undermine North Carolina's safety, prioritizing political posturing over protecting communities from consequences of unchecked illegal immigration. The statement from the GOP reads: quote: These are critical public safety measures requiring state law enforcement officials and sheriffs to notify immigration and customs enforcement, that's ICE, before releasing individuals subject to federal detainers. Particular criticism was reserved from Pittman, who voted against House Bill 318 in April and was marked absent on Senate Bill 153 earlier this week. The Republican caucus accused him of avoiding accountability.
The press release from the caucus says Pittman did not vote because he knew he would be held accountable by the voters of Wilson and Nash counties. If he can't stand up for his constituents over criminal illegal aliens, why is he in Raleigh? And quote there from the House caucus. One of the central elements of the North Carolina Border Protection Act, which passed this week, is to increase cooperation between state agencies and ICE. This is not a new discussion.
You've heard a lot about this over the last couple of years. Lawmakers in Raleigh have gone back multiple times and passed pieces of legislation to try and force all sheriffs in all 100 counties of North Carolina to cooperate with immigration and customs enforcement. Additionally, this bill would enable citizens to legally go after counties that follow through with sanctuary city or county policies. Under the legislation, any county or municipality that would be a city or town that forms sanctuary city status will have its local immunity waived, which would allow citizens harmed by illegal immigration to sue the city, town, or county.
Meanwhile, House Bill 318 tightens the timeline on law enforcement for mandating that law enforcement alerts ICE before an illegal alien criminal suspect is scheduled to be released, ending catch and release policies designed to provide a safe haven for criminal, illegal aliens in Democrat-run jurisdictions. This bill awaits action in the Senate Rules Committee, and this is still very much a very relevant discussion across North Carolina, even with the General Assembly passing some of those pieces of legislation over the last couple of years to require sheriffs to cooperate with ICE. Many sheriffs, including the sheriff in Mecklenburg County, still continue to find themselves at odds with this legislation from the General Assembly, claiming that they are not going to, in fact, cooperate with ICE and give them the proper and required notice by these various pieces of legislation.
So, once again, lawmakers in Raleigh are back at it to try and force the hands of these very Various sheriffs across the state to cooperate with the federal authorities as well as immigration and customs enforcement. We've got some more details, including some examples of what these advertisements look like over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next. Followed by Good Morning, BT.
We are back with you live Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3, WBT.
