GREENVILLE, NC (WNCT) Medicaid expansion, a topic on the minds of many across our state. Monday the North Carolina AIDS Action Network came to Greenville to keep the conversation going.

“Currently there are 7,00 folks in North Carolina living with HIV who receive life-saving care from the existing Medicaid program and we’ve seen recently both on a federal level next door in Tennessee where they are blocking granting Medicaid and in our North Carolina General Assembly really attacks the viability of the program and the importance,” said Lee Storrow, Executive Director of North Carolina AIDS Action Network.

For members of the LGBTQIA+ community access to health care is important.

“Certainly a number of people living with HIV are Gay or Bisexual and we needed Medicaid for vital programs but there’s also a lot of other folks who Medicaid is a critical program to ensure they can live full lives and be healthy,” said Storrow.

“It just goes without saying we need to expand Medicaid in the state of North Carolina. Lots of different people from various different backgrounds need that access to affordable health care and right now they don’t have it,” said Kris Rixon of Pitt County Democratic Party.

For some this fight is about keeping the state healthy.

“We are at a moment in time that ensuring that we have people constantly speaking out about why access to health care is really important protecting the existing programs we have and ensuring they don’t face future cuts. That’s how we’re really going to have a healthier North Carolina,” said Storrow.