VRHA's Policy Priorities
Photo by Christopher Phelps
Support Medicaid Expansion!
We are at a critical point in Virginia regarding Medicaid Extension, and the legislature is divided. We need EACH OF YOU to contact your legislators to help them understand the benefits of extending Medicaid to the 400,000 very low-income Virginians who would be eligible for this extension. This week is our last opportunity to influence the House and Senate budgets that are being developed; they will be voting on their budgets this Sunday, February 3.
Many of those who would be covered are rural Virginians. Extending Medicaid means over 120,000 who currently do not have any form of insurance would have access to the medical care they need.
Virginia stands to gain quite a bit economically from approving this extension: Over a ten year period, Virginia would receive over $20 billion in federal funding while spending under $150 million in state funds.
Additionally, Chmura estimates that from 2014 to 2019, the Medicaid expansion will inject an average of $1.9 billion into Virginia’s healthcare industry. This figure, of course, will increase over time due to both population growth and escalating healthcare costs. In 2014, the total new healthcare spending is estimated to be $0.8 billion, increasing to $2.6 billion in 2019
Finally, if Virginia doesn't extend Medicaid, our federal tax dollars will go to insure people in other states which choose to extend Medicaid. Let's keep our tax dollars in Virginia to help our fellow citizens.
Please review the data for uninsured by House District and Senate District for your area and contact your GA members today!
You can either look up contact information individually on the Virginia Generally Assembly website or use the form provided by our partners at Voices for Virginia's Children.
The Virginia Rural Health Associaiton hosted a series of roundtable discussions on the key topics of:
- Aging in Place
- Behavioral Health
- Care Coordination
- Maternal Health
- Oral Health
- Veterans' Health
The participant discussions focused on defining the issues and identifying potential solutions. From these conversations was born the foundation for a VRHA Policy Agenda. VRHA will be reaching out to members to further develop the potential solutions identified and build them into a solid agenda which can be communicated to our elected officials.
A policy brief of the issue of Veterans' Health has been developed for VRHA by the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Goverance.
Veterans' Health Policy Brief