Despite having a conservative legislature, North Carolina will become the fortieth state to adopt the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. This is a positive development because the Tarheel State presently has over 900,000 people who don’t have any form of medical insurance, and that will be reduced by more than half a million. The Republicans have had a change of heart, but the explanation is almost funny.

Of course, under Obamacare, the federal government will cover 90 percent of the cost, but that was always the case. The legislature worked out way to pay for the remaining 10 percent by taxing hospitals and insurance companies. So, this is an essentially free decision for the legislators, right? It’s a decision they could have taken years ago, avoiding countless preventable deaths and illnesses.

Well, that’s true. But they needed a little extra nudging.

Another major factor that caused GOP lawmakers to change their minds in 2022: The 2021 stimulus package, signed into law by Democratic President Joe Biden, that offered signing bonuses to states that expanded Medicaid — in North Carolina’s case, the $1.8 billion that [House Speaker Tim] Moore mentioned.

The stimulus bill offered nearly two billion in free money that North Carolina lawmakers can spend however they want, and that was a deal too good to pass up. And look at how pointless the delay was:

Republicans fought [Medicaid expansion], in part because of its association with former Democratic President Barack Obama — Medicaid expansion only exists because of Obamacare — but also because of fears that Republicans in Congress would repeal Obamacare, leaving states on the hook for the extra costs of expansion. After national Republicans failed to repeal Obamacare under President Donald Trump, despite controlling both Congress and the White House, it put local GOP leaders more at ease about the future of the program.

The GOP is the stupidest, most spiteful bunch of goons. How many people were pointlessly harmed because they turned an obviously sweet deal simply because they didn’t want President Obama to be a successful president? They never had an alternate health care plan, but they paralyzed themselves pretending that they did.

It’s just disgraceful, but now they’ve finally done the right thing and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper can sign the bill and take all the credit.