Posted on 05/30/2018 11:50:25 AM PDT by GIdget2004
After years of political battles and weeks of procedural delays, the Virginia State Senate voted 23 to 17 Wednesday afternoon to expand Medicaid to cover between 300,000 and 400,000 more low-income residents. Four Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in voting for the expansion.
When the bill is signed into law, as expected later this week, Virginia will join 33 states and the District of Columbia in expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act — though Maine is currently fighting the expansion’s implementation.
Virginia State Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr. (R), the sponsor of the Medicaid expansion amendment whose support got the measure over the finish line, appealed to his colleagues Wednesday in a drawn-out, heated floor debate to vote yes.
“We have the ability to move something through that’s very sure in these uncertain times,” he said. “We can develop a uniquely Virginia plan. While it draws from the experience of many states that have been out there before us, it will serve our citizens.”
Now, the state’s House of Delegates has to vote to adopt the Senate bill or go to conference to resolve the differences between the two chambers, something that could happen within the next few days. Gov. Ralph Northam (D), elected last November in a “blue wave” election in which Medicaid expansion was a key campaign issue, has vowed to sign it into law.
(Excerpt) Read more at talkingpointsmemo.com ...
Virginia will be solidly blue like their neighbor, The People’s Republic of Maryland.
Private sector taxpayers get out now.
Yep. Old Virginia is a lost cause. All the Feral Government workers turned a once great state into a dung hole. Up next. North Carolina.
And the cancer continues to spread.
Most states have expanded Medicaid.
Especially Obamacare ripped the guts out of the private insurance system.
No premiums, no deductibles and no forms to fill out.
I just show my Medicaid card.
ACA = O’Ahole-Bag-O-Crap.
Sad. They used to be a paragon of conservatism years ago.
I generally pooh-pooh people who whine about outsiders coming in and polluting their state (as if they had zero control over it, or they had no homegrown leftists) but Virginia has a very strong case being in such close proximity to that nasty swamp in Washington, DC.
Immigration transformed the state. Demography is destiny.
In some states, Medicaid is 40% of the state budget. Virginia may have to find an additional $20M in the first year of Expansion.
DemocRATS creating and buying dependent voters.
As long as Virginia pays for it, it’s their choice. It’s when the rest of the country have to chip in that I am concerned with.
People are always moving south. Florida is no longer Florida. Texas will fall eventually.
McCain’s fault for blocking a federal solution.
Heck, it’s ALL the RINO’s fault.
Oh, don’t get me started. :-(
I live in NYS, and the state cost-shares with counties. Guess what that’s helped do to Upstate...
Additional $20 mil?? In VA’s dreams.
Democrats F$&ck fhit up. Republicans make sure it stays that way.
Aunt Jemima could win the Georgia governorship.
It all started to go bad when GWB created DHS and lifetime employment for people to stand around all day moving luggage bins.
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