Cooper blocked: Judge halts government from backing new governor

A federal judge has ruled to temporarily block the federal government from supporting a move by new Gov. Roy Cooper to expand Medicaid coverage to thousands of the state's residents through the Affordable Care Act.

We think it was a wise decision. Republican lawmakers had sued to stop Cooper's initiative, and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will oversee the matter. Trump has publicly said he backs the Republican-led Congress in seeking to overturn the health care law, and regulators in his administration will now have the say in any effort to expand it in the state.

Cooper has gotten off to a quick start, getting sworn into office only minutes into the new year and trying to protect his powers as governor before lawmakers could take some of them away. He had hoped to get his expansion of the Affordable Care Act put into place before legislators could stop him. But it was an end run that he couldn't pull off.

Published in Editorials on January 17, 2017 9:44 AM