Roy Cooper has been a career politician for nearly four decades, and now he wants to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina. We've already covered his long history of releasing violent, dangerous criminals from custody, including illegal aliens. Despite that, Cooper is trying to tell the good people of North Carolina that he will fight for them.
Cooper just dropped an ad vowing to fight big insurance companies so that North Carolinians 'get what they paid for.'
Insurance companies have gotten away with far too much for far too long.
— Roy Cooper (@RoyCooperNC) July 17, 2026
I have a plan to take them on so you actually get what you paid for. pic.twitter.com/1gsZLW9V9g
"When you end up here," Cooper said from a hospital room, "the last thing you should have to worry about is fighting with your insurance company. I'm Roy Cooper, and I have a plan to stop insurance companies from ripping you off and denying care a doctor says you need. It gives tax credits to working people, bans insurance companies from sending you big bills you don't expect, and makes sure you actually get what you paid for. I approve this message because the insurance companies have gotten away with far too much for far too long. Enough."
The question that should be asked, however, is whether or not the insurance companies who've donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Cooper over the years have gotten what they paid for. Back in January, Townhall reported that Cooper has taken more than $160,000 from big insurance throughout his political career in North Carolina.
But since launching his bid for the Senate, Cooper has taken over $230,000 more from the insurance industry. That means Cooper—who vows to fight big insurance—has taken nearly $400,000 from the industry.
And while he was governor, those insurance companies got away with a lot.
In 2018, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina announced a 14.1 percent increase in ACA plans across every North Carolina County. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina made several donations to Cooper's Senate campaign, according to financial reports.
Two years ago, North Carolinians paid the highest healthcare costs in the nation, with those who had employer-based plans with "plus-one" coverage paying just over $4,700 in annual premiums. Families with employer-based coverage paid over $7,100 a year, and deductibles topping $2,200 a year.
The prior year, Bright Health announced they were ending the sale of individual healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), citing the need to release "regulated capital." Just months after Cooper expanded the state's Medicaid program, Martin General Hospital filed for bankruptcy and closed, leaving more than 22,000 residents of Martin County without a local hospital. In Harnett County, Betsy Johnson Hospital closed its labor and delivery unit over "financial concerns." Betsy Johnson Hospital was the only hospital in that county to offer those services, creating a maternity desert and endangering women's lives.
And North Carolinians were the ones who had to pay handsomely for Cooper's 2017 Medicaid expansion. Cooper himself admitted taxpayers would be on the hook for the expansion by agreeing to a "mandatory assessment" and noted that if hospitals did not agree the money would come from taxpayers. According to the News & Observer, Cooper used executive action to expand Medicaid in defiance of state law. Reports showed that even with the federal government matching Medicaid funds, North Carolina taxpayers would still be responsible for "tens of millions of dollars" in Medicaid costs. Cooper justified this by saying North Carolina taxpayers were already paying into Medicaid, so they should get something out of it, according to Politifact.
During fiscal year 2024, a year after Cooper signed the Medicaid expansion, HB 76, into law, total Medicaid expenditures were $27.8 billion, a $6.3 billion increase from 2023.
But after wreaking havoc on North Carolinians' healthcare costs, Cooper opposed $213 million in rural healthcare funds that would have helped improve health in rural North Carolina communities.
It's clear Roy Cooper wants to have his metaphorical cake and eat it, too. After his policies made North Carolinians' healthcare the most expensive in the nation, his Medicaid expansion closed hospitals and maternity wards, leaving communities without access to healthcare, and then he opposed federal funding that would have helped rebuild healthcare infrastructure in the rural parts of his state. All the while, Cooper was happy to take campaign donations from the same health insurance companies he vowed to fight. North Carolina voters deserve to know that before they head to the polls in November.