Rasoul acts on healthcare with Virginia Healthy Transitions Program

Delegates Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) and Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) have introduced the Virginia Healthy Transitions Program to increase access to health care for nearly 400,000 Virginians.

The bill takes a conservative approach to expanding health insurance by including such safeguards as requiring enrollees to participate in co-pays and cost sharing arrangements, requirements for employment, and an emphasis on wellness and prevention to improve quality, outcomes, and lower costs.  The bill utilizes Virginia’s private insurance market by enrolling the newly insured in privately run managed care program.

Delegate Hope said, “This is the opposite of government-run health insurance.  This is a private market solution to addressing Virginia’s health care crisis.  This is bipartisan approach that more conservative states than Virginia are using to solve a health care crisis, one that has caused our health insurance premiums to skyrocket over the last decade and caused two hospitals in our state to close their doors.  We cannot sit back and let this continue to happen.  For the sake of taxpayers and our Commonwealth’s economy, we must act in this session.”

Delegate Rasoul said, “This bill is targeted at the working poor – students, minimum wage workers, and the underemployed.  They are our friends and our neighbors and they cannot afford to wait for us to take action.  We must come together now to improve access to health care.  This measure is a compromise that we should all be able to get behind so that we can address this serious situation.  Let’s do the job we’ve been sent here to do.”

Sam Rasoul represents parts of the City of Roanoke in Virginia’s 11th District.  He also serves on Militia, Police and Public Safety, Privileges and Elections, and Science and Technology Committees.

Patrick A. Hope is a member of the Virginia General Assembly as the delegate from the 47th District representing part of Arlington County. He serves on the House Health, Welfare, and Institutions, Courts of Justice, and Militia, Police and Public Safety Committees.