If there’s one thing politicians do little of these days it’s change their minds. But, that’s exactly what North Carolina’s General Assembly did in 2023. More than ten years after the ACA was passed, and in a historic bipartisan move, they changed their minds and voted to expand Medicaid. The state's Secretary of Health & Human Services Kody Kinsley joins us to talk about what it took to get this done and how it’s been going so far. 

We discuss:

• How to get stuff done in a politically divided state

• One move that would dramatically increase access to healthy food in America - automatically enroll all Medicaid beneficiaries in SNAP 

• Why NC Medicaid has gone deep on peer to peer support for prenatal care and mental health

• The importance of building a better narrative about the role and value of public health

Kody points out that North Carolina's strategy of investing in community organizations is creating  both health and economic opportunities:

“75% of our community based organizations are minority or women owned throughout those 33 counties. So, this isn't just about getting good access to what drives health in the long run. This is also about building that infrastructure and having a financing model that sustains it that is in the balance, a good value for the taxpayer.”