The report starts with one, the words of Sonya Taylor, a 55-year-old mother and grandmother from Hertford County who comes from a family of sharecroppers. She worked full time until five years ago when she underwent a six-hour fusion operation for scoliosis in which rods and plates were inserted in her back.

Then she lost her insurance coverage, which means she couldn’t afford physical therapy. Her family has a history of cancer and she now suffers with problems in her gastrointestinal tract but she can’t afford to have them checked out. Here are her words from the report:

I live in fear. My kids deal with the constant worry that they’re going to lose their mother. I feel like I’m fighting for my life and the state of North Carolina could care less.

If I woke up tomorrow and got an email telling me I qualified for some type of insurance, it would change my life. It would be such a godsend to me and my family. It’s disheartening now, because my kids see I have to fight for every bit of medical care I get. I’ve got grandkids. I want to see them grow up.

That is what Medicaid expansion is about and who it is about, not numbers and jobs and hospitals, though those are all important. It’s about people in our neighborhoods and communities.

Read this report and these words from people in our state. And more important, ask your legislator to read them, too. North Carolina surely must be better than this.

NC Policy Watch