NC commission weighs options to lower health care costs

July 27, 2026

2–3 minutes

Summary

North Carolina’s new affordability commission is weighing price transparency, consolidation, telehealth, and other ways to reduce health care costs.

Why this matters

North Carolina residents face relatively high health care costs and weaker access rankings, and the commission’s recommendations could shape future state policy on prices, coverage, and care delivery. Its work may also indicate which cost-control strategies lawmakers and regulators pursue next.

North Carolinians pay more than many Americans for health care, and the state ranks 38th nationally in health care access and affordability, according to a 2025 Commonwealth Fund scorecard.

A RAND study found North Carolina had the nation’s 15th highest overall hospital prices.

Gov. Josh Stein announced the North Carolina Health Care Affordability Commission earlier this summer to recommend ways to reduce costs. At its first meeting this week, members reviewed national and state data on the scale of the problem.

Barak Richman, co-director of the Health Law Program at George Washington University Law School, told the bipartisan commission that the United States spent $5.3 trillion on health care in 2024, more than other wealthy countries.

“It’s important to say that we are no healthier. In fact, we are actually less healthy than those [other] industrial nations,” Richman said.

About 1 in 6 U.S. adults skipped health care because of cost, according to an analysis by KFF. Richman said employers increasingly struggle to offer insurance, and premiums for workers have risen faster than inflation since 2013.

He said 8% of North Carolinians had medical debt in collections in 2023, the fourth-highest rate in the country.

“In 2023, 8% of North Carolinians had medical debt in collections. It’s not just that they had medical debt, but that they were contacted by a court saying that they were being sued for a collection,” Richman said.

Richman said hospital care and physicians account for 65 cents of every health care dollar spent, and costs tend to rise when prices are difficult to compare.

“You don’t have price competition if patients can’t compare prices,” said Richman.

Members are also reviewing Indiana’s recent cost-control efforts. State lawmakers there codified the federal hospital price transparency rule, required third-party administrators and pharmacy benefit managers to act as fiduciaries, banned excess hospital fees, prohibited noncompete clauses for primary care, and required merger reports to the state attorney general. Gov. Mike Braun also signed an executive order denying tax exemptions to hospitals that provide less charity care than the value of their state tax breaks.

The commission will meet again in October to decide which areas to prioritize. It is scheduled to deliver recommendations to Stein in January 2027.

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Tech & Artificial Intelligence

Study: Data centers cut power prices, for now

In Virginia, which has more data centers than any other state, residential electricity prices rose by more than 13% in the last year, according to Energy Information Administration data.

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Public concern about data centers has increasingly focused on electricity costs. A YouGov poll last year found that, among 1,000 Americans, more than two-thirds expected power prices to rise if a data center were built in their area. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs projected that AI infrastructure buildout would raise electricity costs by 6% between 2026 and 2027, and by another 3% by 2028.

A recent working paper from the Electric Power Research Institute offered a more mixed picture. Using data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and retail revenue data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration from 2015 to 2024, researchers found that data center operations were associated with lower retail electricity prices through at least 2024.

The study found a causal relationship between data center demand and electricity prices: For every doubling of data center capacity, average retail electricity prices fell by 3.5%. At the state level, the decline was about 6%.

Researcher and co-author Asa Watten said much of that relationship reflected economies of scale.

“Electricity markets are different than a lot of markets that they interact with,” Watten told Fortune.

Unlike commodities such as soybeans or gasoline, electricity prices are tied to cost recovery, or how much power is consumed. As fixed costs are spread across more customers and more kilowatt-hours, prices can fall. Higher data center demand can also bring more generators online, some of which are more energy efficient.

The paper said that pattern may not continue. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, said in a report this week that a $6.3 billion increase in consumer electricity costs over the next three years could be mostly attributed to rising data center power demand.

The increase in data center construction, expected to reach $7 trillion in spending by 2030, has already been correlated with higher power costs. In Virginia, which has more data centers than any other state, residential electricity prices rose by more than 13% in the last year, according to Energy Information Administration data.
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FDA reports new cyclospora outbreak, source unknown

“Because cyclosporiasis is often underdiagnosed and underreported, the true number of illnesses is likely higher than what has been reported,” the CDC noted.

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Federal health officials identified a new cyclospora outbreak linked to an unspecified product, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.

The agency said the source had “not yet identified.” An FDA spokesperson told CBS News the agency had started a traceback investigation to follow a potentially contaminated food product through the supply chain and identify the source of the outbreak.

The announcement came as North Carolina health officials said they were investigating more than 560 cases since May 1 that may be linked to parsley, cilantro, and lettuce.

The FDA has opened investigations into multiple cyclospora outbreaks nationwide, including one linked to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms that has been blamed for thousands of illnesses in nine states, including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

That investigation led Taylor Farms to voluntarily recall all of its iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico.

A separate outbreak resulted in at least 10 cases, the FDA said, while another outbreak had ended but remained under investigation.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that typically infects people through contaminated food or water. It causes cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness that can include severe diarrhea.

Cooking can kill the parasite, but health officials said washing fruits and vegetables alone is not enough.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it had received reports of 4,173 lab-confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis since May 1 and was aware of more than 7,400 additional cases that required further analysis to confirm.

The CDC has confirmed 1,947 illnesses linked to the iceberg lettuce outbreak from June 22 through July 20.

State health departments have reported higher totals in some places. Michigan health officials said Thursday there were 7,664 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis in that state alone, CBS News Detroit reported.
Europe

1 dead, 14 injured after car hits Berlin Pride crowd

Police said the number and severity of injuries were not immediately clear.

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One person died and at least 14 others were injured after a car was suspected of driving into a crowd near an LGBTQ Pride parade in Berlin on Saturday, according to German police.

Police said they believed a car drove into central Tiergarten park, near the route of the Christopher Street Day march, hitting several people. Some of the injured had life-threatening injuries, police said.

The incident prompted authorities to call off the event hours after it began. Police urged people in a post on X to leave immediately and avoid traveling through Tiergarten park.

Police said a vehicle was found abandoned at the scene in Tiergarten, a wooded area where the parade ends, and officers were searching for the occupant or occupants.

A reporter for the German news agency dpa said police illuminated the area between Potsdamer Platz and the southern side of the Tiergarten tunnel as officers searched for evidence.

Emergency services treated injured people at the scene.

Hundreds of thousands of people had come to Berlin for Christopher Street Day, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ celebrations. The event at Brandenburg Gate was called off at about 10:15 p.m. local time, interrupting a band’s performance on stage.

Before the incident, people had marched peacefully through the city for hours, dancing, listening to music, and cheering about 80 floats in the parade.
Europe

Wildfires in Spain, France force 250,000 evacuations

70,000 people had been evacuated in Spain and nearly 200,000 in France.

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More than 250,000 people were evacuated from homes and holiday areas in France and Spain as wildfires continued burning on Saturday.

In Spain, firefighters were trying to contain fires near Madrid, but Madrid regional emergency chief Carlos Novillo said the blaze was “at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain.” He warned that shifting winds could spread the fire further.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said the fires had burned nearly 10,000 hectares in the Madrid region and between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares in neighboring Avila province.

Two fires merged on Friday into one larger blaze and were close to joining another in the neighboring Castilla y Leon region. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said after an emergency meeting in Cenicientos that the priority was to “save lives.”

“Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas,” Sanchez told reporters. “We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be.”

In France, authorities evacuated thousands of people from suburbs near Bordeaux as fires continued to burn. Sophie Brocas, head of the local administration for La Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Gironde, said Le Haillan, Eysines, and Merignac were being cleared.

About 44,000 people left the Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, where flames threatened the only road out. Boats evacuated hundreds, others left by car, and more than 50 houses were destroyed.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said 197,000 people had been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions. “The fires which are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before,” he wrote on X.

Lecornu called a second government crisis meeting in two days. France also deployed the army, and President Emmanuel Macron asked the European Union for assistance, including a military transport aircraft for firefighting operations. About 100 Paris firefighters were also sent, Paris Fire Brigade commander Arnaud de Cacqueray told Agence France-Presse.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said fires across France had burned nearly 98,000 hectares, calling it a “historic record.” He said several fires remained out of control.
Asia

India protests over exam leaks lead minister to resign

On July 20, more than 100 protesters were wounded during a march to Parliament as police used tear gas, batons, and canes.

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Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Saturday he was stepping down after weeks of youth-led protests over an exam paper leak scandal that affected millions across India.

His resignation met one of the main demands of demonstrations that had expanded across the country in recent weeks and posed a challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

At a protest site at Jantar Mantar in central New Delhi, Abhijeet Dipke announced the news to thousands of supporters. Dipke had created the satirical Cockroach Janta Party 36 days earlier after a social media post asking: “What if all cockroaches came together?”

He also read the names of students who had died by suicide amid exam paper leaks and cancellations, and dedicated the protesters’ victory to them.

“They called us lazy and unemployed,” said 19-year-old Lavanya Bharti, referring to comments by India’s chief justice likening India’s youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites,” which prompted the creation of the group. “We [are] lazy enough to sleep on our Parliament Street for days; we are unemployed, bro,” she said. “We have erased the fear that Modi spent years building. Cockroaches are crawling all over you, Modi.”

The group later urged protesters to “return home peacefully” after saying the government had accepted all of its demands. Those included compensation for the families of students who had died by suicide, assurances that protesters would face no punitive action, and a public apology from police and paramilitary forces over attacks on demonstrators.
World

Drones hit Irbil as U.S.-Iran conflict widens

No injuries or damage were reported.

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Explosive-laden drones targeted Irbil in northern Iraq on Friday, hours after the U.S. military said it had completed another night of strikes on Iran.

U.S.-led forces shot down five drones over Irbil, according to security officials in northern Iraq.

Flights continued as normal, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, citing the airport’s director. U.S. military officials in Iraq did not respond to a request for comment.

A small contingent of U.S. military advisers is based in Iraq, many of them in Irbil.

Bahrain said it intercepted and shot down Iranian aerial attacks Friday, but did not say whether there were casualties or damage. Jordan’s armed forces said they had downed seven Iranian missiles and six drones.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard urged people in neighboring countries to stay away from bases with American troops. It said it had targeted the U.S. base in Udairi, Kuwait, and struck a watchtower for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain. U.S. Central Command did not respond to inquiries about those claims.

In Iran, U.S. strikes hit a Revolutionary Guard naval base in the north, the semiofficial news outlets Fars and ISNA reported. Overnight blasts were also reported on Qeshm Island and in Isfahan province. Central Command said the strikes were intended to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters.”

The Iranian Health Ministry said 3,434 people had been killed since the war began. There were no public signs of progress in diplomacy. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks with China and Russia were continuing and that Iran “will not bow to U.S. bullying.”
South Carolina

Lawsuit challenges S.C. tattoo limits near churches

SC legalized tattooing in 2004, but requires tattoo parlors to be at least 1,000 feet from churches, schools, and playgrounds.

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A tattoo shop and two South Carolina residents sued in federal court last week, arguing the state’s restrictions on where tattoo parlors can operate and what tattoos they can provide violate the First Amendment.

South Carolina legalized tattooing in 2004, becoming the second-to-last state to do so after Oklahoma. The law requires tattoo parlors to be at least 1,000 feet from churches, schools, and playgrounds, and bars artists from tattooing the neck, face, or head.

Tiny Zaps, a New York City-based tattoo shop, said it wanted to hold a pop-up at a downtown Charleston hotel but could not because the site was within 1,000 feet of a church. Owner Sam Kelly said the rule makes it difficult to operate in downtown Charleston.

Kelly also said the shop wanted to offer behind-the-ear tattoos, which are illegal in South Carolina. Joshua and Stephanie McDonald of Fountain Inn joined the lawsuit to challenge the state’s ban on tattoos on the head and neck.

The state Department of Public Health and the attorney general’s office, which were named as defendants, had not yet filed responses.

According to the state health department, South Carolina has nearly 200 tattoo parlors.

Lawmakers have filed bills for years to revise the law, without success. Since his 2022 election, Rep. Brandon Guffey, a Rock Hill Republican, has repeatedly sponsored bills that would let churches approve nearby tattoo parlors, change the head-tattoo prohibition, and allow parlors to offer piercings or sell artwork.
World Politics

Trump adds Israel condition to Saudi nuclear deal

A White House spokesperson and Energy Department press secretary denied any internal strife.

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A civilian nuclear agreement signed Wednesday by the United States and Saudi Arabia was thrown into question less than a day later after President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia would have to join the Abraham Accords and said the deal would not allow uranium enrichment.

The agreement was signed at the Energy Department in Washington after months of delay, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright appearing alongside his Saudi counterpart by video from Riyadh.

According to a source familiar with the matter and other sources who spoke to CNN, Trump was upset that Wright announced the deal without his approval and that criticism from experts, Fox News, and The Wall Street Journal followed. Two sources briefed on the matter told CNN the new Abraham Accords condition surprised the administration’s nuclear negotiators.

“President Trump’s energy team is fully aligned, and always has been: the civil nuclear deal being brokered between the United States and Saudi Arabia is contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the successful Abraham Accords, which will help bring true peace to the Middle East,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said.

Energy Department press secretary Ben Dietderich disputed any internal split. “This is fake news. The Department of Energy has closely coordinated the negotiations and then announcement of these agreements with the White House and the State Department. Any suggestion otherwise is false,” and added that the deal and the Abraham Accords “achieve a common goal — delivering lasting peace through commerce, not conflict,” he said.

CNN reported that the signed accord did not require Saudi normalization with Israel. It also reported the deal would allow uranium enrichment on Saudi soil if conditions were met and would limit the International Atomic Energy Agency’s ability to inspect suspected covert sites. The White House said letters required for Congress had not been sent, and some Trump aides did not view the deal as finalized.

The agreement traced back nearly two decades. A tentative version was reached in October, and the Trump administration later sent Congress a waiver report because the Saudis were not required to sign the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol.

Critics cited proliferation risks and the lack of enhanced safeguards, while supporters pointed to commercial benefits and the risk that Saudi Arabia could turn to China or Russia.

Questions also arose about whether Israeli concerns played a role, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not spoken, “Not to my knowledge.” She said Trump had raised the issue with Saudi officials before.
Virginia

Virginia board backs tighter review of transit fund

Lawmakers directed the changes in the biennium budget passed in late June after raising concerns about awareness and oversight, according to Secretary of Transportation Nick Donohue.

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The Commonwealth Transportation Board on Wednesday accepted regulation changes for how money from Virginia’s Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund is allocated, giving lawmakers more time to review proposals.

The fund has invested more than $644 million since 2005, as of Jan. 31, to support major projects, including transportation improvements for the LEGO manufacturing plant in Chesterfield County and access improvements near Wallops Island for aerospace and research facilities.

The changes increase oversight by lowering funding thresholds that trigger review by the Virginia Major Employment and Investment Commission, extending the review period, adding formal notification requirements, and requiring updates to program guidelines.

Under the guidelines, the governor can award grants of up to $5 million, revolving loans of up to $30 million, and other financing tools to a Virginia agency or political subdivision.

Proposed notification changes include requiring review by the Major Employment and Investment Commission within 30 days if a single project receives more than $10 million, or more than $25 million over two years. If the commission does not respond, the award can proceed.

The governor’s notice also must be hand-delivered to the commission and staff for the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations committees.

The transportation secretary will continue notifying legislative leaders within 35 days of awards exceeding $5 million.

The revised guidelines will be posted for 30 days of public review and comment on Virginia Regulatory Town Hall, the state’s online site for government rule changes.

Before making new awards, the governor must provide copies of the revised changes to the chairs of the House Appropriations, Finance, and Transportation committees and the Senate Finance and Appropriations committees.
NC lead

ICE plans N.C. detention center at former prison

Gov. Josh Stein said Friday on social media that he opposed the plan.

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A former federal prison in Winton appears likely to become North Carolina’s first dedicated federal immigration detention center, according to a New York Times report citing internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents.

The report said Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to open a detention center this fall at the former Rivers Correctional Institution. The facility would be operated by private prison company GEO Group and hold about 1,400 detainees, making it one of the largest immigration detention centers on the East Coast.

The development followed a rally Wednesday at the state legislature in Raleigh, where dozens of activists urged state leaders to oppose detaining immigrants in North Carolina.

Gov. Josh Stein said Friday on social media that he opposed the plan.

“The planned ICE detention center in Winton is not state-owned, and I did not approve this transaction,” Stein wrote. “Like many other North Carolinians, I do not want it in our state. ICE and Border Patrol have not earned our trust.”

The Rivers site operated as a federal prison until it closed in 2021 after President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the federal government to phase out contracts with privately operated prisons. Before closing, the prison employed about 300 people in Hertford County.

A 2016 U.S. Department of Justice review of privately operated federal prisons found Rivers had among the highest rates in the federal private prison system for inmate-on-inmate violence, sexual misconduct, contraband, and positive drug tests.

The Washington Post reported in August 2025 that the Trump administration was considering reopening Rivers to expand immigration detention space. During an earnings call that month, GEO Group Executive Chairman George Zoley said the company hoped to reopen Rivers and was negotiating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The report comes as immigration enforcement has increased in North Carolina. According to the Deportation Data Project, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 6,300 people in the state since Trump took office in January 2025, about double the number during the previous two years under Biden.

It also followed passage of North Carolina’s Border Protection Act, which became law over Stein’s veto and expanded cooperation between federal immigration authorities and several state agencies. Republican lawmakers said the law improved statewide standards and public safety, while opponents said it would increase immigration enforcement and detention.