Right for the economy

All Virginians — health care providers, business people and households — will benefit if Virginia expands Medicaid in 2014. Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe sees, as his opponent does not, that Medicaid expansion is the first cost-saving reform Virginia must make, insuring low-income, working adults and moving their care from expensive emergency rooms to cost-effective primary care.

McAuliffe calls Medicaid expansion “morally and socially right.” Data in the Chmura Economic Impact Study on Virginia Medicaid Expansion, commissioned by the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, demonstrates that expansion is also economically right, yielding an annual average benefit of $3.9 billion and 30,821 jobs from 2014 to 2019. The 52-page study is online at http://tinyurl.com/k4a9ldr.

The study predicts that 400,000 new enrollees would be added to the current Medicaid enrollment of 1.15 million Virginians, who are 51 percent children, 26 percent disabled, 16 percent pregnant women or parents and 7 percent elderly.

The 400,000 predicted new enrollees number slightly more than disabled enrollees. They are uninsured Virginians living under 1.38 times the poverty level — low-income, able-bodied, mostly working Virginians. They are stocking shelves, handing you change at the cash register, serving in restaurants, delivering your pizza or your newspaper, mowing your lawn, worshiping with you on Sunday or caring for your child in day care.

When these Virginians are insured, all of us will be in better health, physically and economically. I urge every Virginian to vote for McAuliffe in November for governor.

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