Attorney General's Opinion Sparks New Debate Over Health Care Law

North Carolina's attorney general predicted on Thursday that Medicaid payments could stop if lawmakers force him to challenge the federal health care reform law.

The Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill on Tuesday that would block a provision of the law mandating individual coverage and directs Attorney General Roy Cooper to join a lawsuit challenging the law.

In a nine-page letter, Cooper, argued the bill will have unintended consequences and will prohibit the state from collecting Medicaid fees, which could jeopardize federal funding for the entire program in North Carolina.

However, some people in the health care industry don't believe Cooper. Bill Griffin, the owner of a medical supply company in Charlotte, has been in the home health care business for 30 years. He said he doesn't believe Cooper's argument that Medicaid funding is in jeopardy.

"It's nothing but a scare tactic," Griffin said. "Medicaid, Medicare are programs that have been in this country years and years. They are there; they're still going to be there."

But one lawmaker said Cooper's fears are well founded in constitutional law.

"I think this is hurtful to Charlotte, and the whole state," said Rep. Beverly Earle, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County. "Medicaid basically serves children, elderly and the disabled. Those are the people that are going to hurt if in fact we are not able to draw federal dollars."

With 26 states challenging the health care law, Griffin said the federal government will wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in before making any tough decisions.

Gov. Beverly Perdue has not signed the bill, but it will become law early next week if she doesn't veto it.