Virginia House Republicans today unanimously voted to block Medicaid expansion – effectively denying health care to 400,000 Virginians.
The final vote was 66-34. The tally was not a surprise. Virginia Republicans have been blocking efforts advanced by Gov. Terry McAuliffe to expand Medicaid coverage for more than three years.
“Year after year, Governor McAuliffe and House Democrats have fought doggedly to expand Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of Virginians,” said House Democratic Leader David J. Toscano. “This is money that Virginia taxpayers have already paid into the federal system. We have left more than $10 billion on the table since the Affordable Care Act became law, and we are bleeding another $6.6 million every day. Expanding Medicaid would create 30,000 jobs, save our state budget $73 million per year, and enable Virginians to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in improving our behavioral health system and combating the opioid epidemic. House Republicans are failing the people they were elected to serve.”
“Virginia House Republicans again chose politics over human lives,” said Caucus Chair Charniele Herring. “The Washington Post has even declared their obstinance ‘indefensible,’ and yet they still refuse to be moved. We are saddened and speechless and have one clear message: health care is a basic human right.”
Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, a candidate for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination, said in a statement that he is “disappointed that House Republicans ignored calls from business leaders, medical providers, community leaders and hardworking Virginians by voting again today to reject Medicaid expansion in the Commonwealth.”
“The Affordable Care Act is here to stay, and it is unacceptable that we continue to leave 400,000 Virginians with no good option for health insurance. Additionally, by rejecting Medicaid expansion we will keep handing Virginia tax dollars over to neighboring states – already more than $10.4 billion,” Northam said. “I will continue to fight for access to quality and affordable healthcare for all Virginians along with the Governor and our administration.”
Tom Perriello, also in the running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, also offered a critical statement on the final vote.
“Today, with a single vote, Republican legislators could have delivered health care coverage to 400,000 more Virginians through the Medicaid expansion that Governor McAuliffe had put back on the table,” Perriello said. “It was that simple. One vote, countless lives and communities changed for the better. For those hundreds of thousands of Virginians, this expansion would have given the basic health care services, as well as substance abuse and mental health coverage, that are so desperately needed in our communities. But this wasn’t just the right thing to do morally; this was a chance for the millions of us who are privately insured to see lower premiums, the state to see more revenues, our communities to see thousands of new jobs.
“Yet Republicans said no. They put blind partisan politics ahead of what is clearly best for Virginia’s families, workers and economy,” Perriello said. “As governor, I will immediately reintroduce Medicaid expansion. I will campaign on it this year in every corner of our state, campaign for delegate candidates who support it (and against Republican delegates who oppose it), and we will show once-and-for-all in November that expanding Medicaid is what Virginians want their leaders in Richmond to do. We will make this a voting issue, and we won’t back down from this fight.”
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