The future of North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilots and what it means for other Medicaid programs considering social needs programs

North Carolina’s much-heralded Medicaid experiment, which addressed social drivers of health like food, housing, and transportation more broadly and systematically than in other states, is on the brink, a victim of the latest partisan budget standoff in the state. North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services halted the Medicaid pilot on July 1 due to funding cuts from the state legislature. The odds that it will be revived when state lawmakers finally do strike a budget deal are shrinking, though not extinguished.