Winsome Earle-Sears: “The bill as you know now does so many great things”

VIRGINIA – As Winsome Earle-Sears praises Donald Trump’s tax bill, new reports show that it will take healthcare away from 350,000 Virginians in addition to forcing rural hospitals to close and raising costs across the Commonwealth. Alice Burns, associate director at KFF’s program for Medicaid and the Uninsured highlighted the rising numbers of Virginians facing healthcare cuts: “KFF model found that changes to Medicaid, the ACA, and expiring ACA tax credits would translate to about 350,000 people in Virginia no longer being insured.”
 
Kevin Patchett, the director of the Virginia Health Benefits Exchange, at a meeting of the House Emergency committee studying the impact of federal cuts, noted that “some families could see a doubling of their monthly premiums.”
 
Sears said Trump’s tax bill “does so many great things” and has come under fire for pushing lies that she can use Virginia’s rainy day fund to cover Medicaid cuts, even though it’s mathematically impossible.  
 
What Virginians Are Reading About the Healthcare Cuts Sears is Backing: 
 
WAMU: What changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act could mean for health care in Virginia

• Modeling from KFF, an independent health research group, suggests that Virginia could lose just over a fifth of the Medicaid funding it currently receives from the federal government over the next ten years — one of the steepest reductions faced by any state in the country.
• “In all of the different ways that the bill singles out different types of states — there’s three different big buckets, and Virginia meets all three of those,” said Alice Burns, associate director at KFF’s program for Medicaid and the Uninsured. She added that about half of the bill’s cuts target the expansion population.
• Burns KFF model found that changes to Medicaid, the ACA, and expiring ACA tax credits would translate to about 350,000 people in Virginia no longer being insured.
• Some families could see a doubling of their monthly premiums, depending on their income bracket, Patchett [Kevin Patchett, the director of the Virginia Health Benefits Exchange, at a meeting of the House Emergency committee studying the impact of federal cuts] estimated.

The Virginia Independent: Trump cuts could close rural hospitals and leave thousands without access to medical care

• Cuts to Medicaid, expiring insurance premium subsidies, and other policy changes will likely make it harder for Virginians to access health care services — even if they don’t lose their insurance.
• Recent actions by President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress are expected to result in hundreds of thousands of Virginians losing their health insurance coverage. Providers across Virginia are warning that even those who are able to keep their insurance may still find it harder to access health care.
• Due to the drop in the number of insured Virginians as a result of the Medicaid cuts and other changes in the budget law, hospitals in the commonwealth are expected to lose billions of dollars in revenue annually once the law is fully implemented, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association.

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