On April 11, the General Assembly will debate and vote on a budget. There’s two versions. The House of Delegates version includes funding for Medicaid expansion; the Senate’s does not.
There’s no time to waste. 400,000 of our friends and neighbors can’t wait.
You might be sick of hearing about Medicaid expansion from us. We’ve talked about:
- Why you should care about Medicaid expansion
- Who is blocking access to healthcare
- And why there is still time to demand your legislators expand Medicaid
But we’ll be talking about Medicaid expansion until it’s passed in Virginia. And we are not alone.
This week, a canvassing effort kicked off in Richmond, with Delegates Schuyler VanValkenburg and Debra Rodman and State Senator Jennifer McClellan—all elected officials who support expanding Medicaid.
Armed with clipboards, information about Medicaid expansion, and contact numbers for the Senators who are blocking healthcare, these elected officials and twenty healthcare advocates went door-to-door talking to voters in Senate districts around the Commonwealth.
These tireless volunteers are urging voters to talk with their elected officials about how essential Medicaid expansion is for thousands of Virginia’s families.
I’ll take this moment to remind you that Virginia has one of the most restrictive eligibility thresholds in the nation to qualify for Medicaid coverage—families must be very, very poor to qualify. How poor?
A family of three making just $11,000 a year makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid in Virginia right now. That leaves them in a coverage gap—too poor to afford health insurance and not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.
These healthcare advocates will be out hitting the streets and knocking on doors until our State Senators understand that we won’t settle for less than Medicaid expansion. You can tell your State Senator too, right now.