Governor Stein Establishes Health Care Affordability Commission Co-Chaired by NCDHHS Secretary and NC State Treasurer

Today Governor Josh Stein signed an executive order to make health care more affordable for all North Carolinians. Executive Order No. 39 establishes the Health Care Affordability Commission, made up of health care experts from across the health care landscape, including medical providers, hospitals, insurers, researchers, and patient advocates. The commission, co-chaired by North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner and NC Secretary of Health and Human Services Dev Sangvai, will develop timely, concrete solutions to rein in surging health care costs.

"Health care costs are skyrocketing, and families are suffering," said Governor Josh Stein. "I thank Secretary Sangvai and Treasurer Briner for their partnership, and I look forward to working with them to ensure North Carolinians can get access to and afford critical health care where and when they need it."

"All consumers of health care, which is literally everyone in our state, experience the same thing year after year. Costs continue to rise faster than the incomes we need to pay for them," said Treasurer Brad Briner. "As Chairman of the State Health Plan, which provides health care for over 750,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their families, we cannot keep asking those employees and the taxpayers to shoulder this increasingly unsustainable burden. We aspire to deliver a vision of what a functioning health care system could look like, in addition to near-term concrete recommendations, with this task force. It's an honor to co-chair this task force to help find a better path forward for the people of this great state."

"Every North Carolinian deserves access to affordable, high-quality health care," said NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. "As health care costs rise, the Commission will be grounded in its mission to identify solutions, increase transparency, improve value, and make health care more affordable as we build a healthier North Carolina.

The cost of health care is increasing all over the country. Health care spending in the United States has increased by nearly 50 percent more than in comparable peer countries. Health care costs in the United States average nearly $16,5000 per person every year, with individuals paying more than $1,500 in out-of-pocket costs on average in addition to health insurance premiums.

Governor Stein is committed to expanding access to affordable health care. In April, Governor Stein signed into law House Bill 696, fully funding Medicaid and protecting coverage for the more than 730,000 North Carolinians who benefit from Medicaid expansion. He continues to call on the General Assembly to use recurring, not one-time, funding to protect the program for those who need it.

In October, Governor Stein announced that the state's medical debt relief program erased more than $6.5 billion in medical debt for more than 2.5 million North Carolinians. Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians are receiving letters from hospitals and the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to let them know that some or all of their medical debt has been cleared. An example of this letter is available on the DHHS website.

North Carolina is stronger when its people are healthier. Governor Stein's recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 proposes fully funding the NC Medicaid Program, protecting the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and improving access to healthy food and clean drinking water to enhance all North Carolinians' safety, health, and well-being.

Executive Order 39 directs the Health Care Affordability Commission to examine the following priority areas, as well as other areas that data indicate are drivers of increased health care costs:

• Improving transparency, data collection, and recordkeeping to better serve consumers and inform policymakers;
• Promoting competition in the market for health care services, including increasing system capacity;
• Addressing health care workforce shortages by increasing supply of providers, especially primary care providers;
• Expanding access to and utilization of primary care across the state;
• Exploring value-based care models; and
• Examining unique solutions to improve affordability in rural areas.

Click here to read Executive Order No. 39.

Commission members include:

Voting Members:

• Brad Briner, State Treasurer (co-chair)
• Devdutta Sangvai, M.D., Secretary, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (co-chair)
• Senator Gale Adcock, Member, North Carolina Senate Standing Committee on Health Care
• Representative Allen Buansi, Member, North Carolina House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health
• Senator Benton Sawrey, Chair, North Carolina Senate Standing Committee on Health Care
• Representative Timothy Reeder, M.D., Chair, North Carolina House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health
• Kristin Walker, Director, Office of State Budget and Management

Advisory Members:

• Josh Dobson, President & CEO, North Carolina Healthcare Association
• John Green, CEO, Iredell Health System
• Sandra Greene, Senior Research Fellow, UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
• Tina Gordon, CEO, North Carolina Nurses Association
• Steve Keene, President, North Carolina Medical Society
• Rachel Keever, M.D., CEO, Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation
• Mark McClellan, M.D., Director, Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy
• Karen McLeod, President & CEO, Benchmarks
• Paige Ouimet, Professor, UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise
• Cristy Page, M.D., CEO, UNC Health and Dean, UNC School of Medicine
• Michelle Ries, Director, North Carolina Institute of Medicine
• Nicholas Riggs, Director, North Carolina Navigator Consortium
• Rob Robinson, President, North Carolina Association of Public Community Health Plans
• Gary Salamido, President and CEO, NC Chamber
• Dr. Tunde Sotunde, M.D., CEO, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
• Laurie Stradley, CEO, Impact Health
• Dave Werry, President, Well
• Tom Wroth, M.D., President & CEO, Community Care of North Carolina

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