A Richmond Times-Dispatch report highlights Virginians' growing concerns about Republicans’ promise to cut Medicaid funding, jeopardizing Virginia's Medicaid expansion and putting nearly 630,000 people at risk of automatically losing coverage. Earlier this month, all five of Virginia’s House Republican members voted to pass the Trump-backed budget resolution that threatens as much as $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

“Republicans knew exactly how deeply they could hurt Virginians when they voted for Trump’s reckless budget blueprint—which will gut Medicaid, strain hospitals, hurt local economies, and endanger the lives of over half a million people,” said DPVA Communications Director Kelsey Carolan. “When they vote for this budget to send to Trump’s desk, it won’t just be party over people—it will be a deliberate betrayal of the Virginians they were elected to serve. Voters won’t forget, and next year, they’ll hold them accountable at the ballot box.”

Richmond Times-Dispatch: For some Virginians, talks of cutting Medicaid funds hit home
By: Dave Ress

• “As Republican members of Congress focus more on what Washington pays to support expanded Medicaid coverage, Jessi Ross, thinking of her path to recovery from addiction, is growing alarmed.”
• “‘I’m not even sure if I would be alive if it were not for Medicaid,’ Ross said Wednesday at a news conference at the General Assembly Building where she and others called on Virginia’s congressional delegation not to cut Medicaid funding.”
• “She said she had been addicted to opioids for more than 20 years, living out of state, and when her partner died of an overdose a few years back, her mom brought her back home to Virginia.”
• “In 2018 Virginia lawmakers and Gov. Ralph Northam approved Medicaid expansion, choosing to accept Affordable Care Act funds to provide Medicaid coverage to more people. Before that, Virginia had some of the most limited coverage in the nation.”
• “Virginia’s Medicaid expansion, which covers some 630,000 people now, is at risk. Even the smallest cut in what the federal government pays as its share of the expansion — 90% as opposed to 50% for traditional Medicaid — would trigger an automatic cancelation of coverage for those 630,000 people, including Ross.”
• “[...] This week, Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., told Fox Business that Republicans are thinking of cutting much of their $880 billion target for Medicaid by cutting the amount Washington pays for Medicaid expansion.”
• “When Ross thinks of what that could mean, she remembers that Medicaid paid for an intensive outpatient treatment program — eight hours a day, three days a week — as well as group therapy.”
• “‘My case manager, who was paid by Medicaid, literally just put me on my feet and sober … Medicaid also paid for my suboxone when I relapsed,’ she said, ‘Without Medicaid, suboxone and doctors’ appointments would have been unaffordable.’”
• “‘So I’m here just to beg Congress, please do not cut Medicaid … People will relapse. I’m afraid I will relapse without the health care I get to Medicaid,’ she said.”
• “She said she’s learned she can live a sober, productive life — Ross now works as a peer recovery specialist, helping others along the path she’s been following.”
• “‘But you need support to do it, and when you start removing those supports, the world collapses around you, and you could relapse. Medicaid saved my life,’ she said.”
• “[...] Medicaid, thanks to the expansion, pays for the anxiety medication that DeShawn Cross needs, just as it paid for a detox program and the medication he needed when withdrawal triggered seizures.”
• “‘I was addicted to alcohol and living on the streets of Newport News and Norfolk at first, but thanks to Medicaid, I was able to get to a recovery program in the area,’ he said.”
• “‘Medicaid also covered my first 30 days of my recovery … and it was thanks to my case manager there, who was paid by Medicaid, that I was able to get into a recovery house program,’ he said.”
• “‘I would just tell members of Congress, if you want to get more people to be productive members of society, some of them need help getting a start. I needed that help getting a start, and Medicaid was that start,’ he said.”