VIRGINIA – As three rural health clinics in Virginia are set to close, Winsome Earle-Sears has continued to downplay Donald Trump’s healthcare cuts she backs that will cause 350,000 Virginians to lose their healthcare and at least six rural hospitals to close. During a forum on Monday, the Virginia Mercury reports that Sears “downplayed”  cuts to health care and lied saying “the new law’s negative impacts on patients and hospitals were overstated and argued the state had sufficient reserves to weather any problems.” 
 
Sears has previously been called out for lying to Virginians by pushing claims that she can use Virginia’s “rainy day” reserve to cover Medicaid cuts even though the math doesn't add up. 
 
Virginia Mercury: ‘Big, beautiful bill’ fallout: At forum, Spanberger and Earle-Sears clash over Medicaid

• Virginia Republican gubernatorial hopeful Winsome Earle-Sears downplayed possible cuts to health care caused by President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” Monday evening in a rare face-off with her rival, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, ahead of this fall’s statewide elections.
• Speaking at a virtual forum focused on Virginians with disabilities, Earle-Sears said the new law’s negative impacts on patients and hospitals were overstated and argued the state had sufficient reserves to weather any problems.
• Spanberger, a former CIA intelligence officer and Congressional representative, called the bill “catastrophic” and accused the lieutenant governor of ignoring the bill’s impacts in Virginia.
• Democrats and many independent analysts, including the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, have said the new law creates myriad rules that will effectively reduce Medicaid enrollment, pointing to recent examples in Georgia and Arkansas. 

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