Virginia can control its destiny with Medicaid expansion

Emmett Hanger | Hanger, R-Augusta County, represents the 24th District in the Virginia Senate and is chairman of the General Assembly’s Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

There are a number of reasons opponents of Medicaid expansion cite for not wanting to move forward with expansion and accept federal money (up to $2 billion per year) that is Virginia’s potential share. The funds are intended to provide health care access to as many as 400,000 low-income, uninsured Virginians.

While we should all agree that our federal government needs to balance the budget and cannot afford to simply borrow money to pay for current operations, Medicaid expansion has a series of funding streams that we will be paying for, one way or another.

Under the Affordable Care Act, a number of measures were adopted in order to pay for the program. Through a combination of taxes, cost savings and a re-direction of existing funds, the money that would come to Virginia is already being paid for by Virginians.

We can control our destiny with Medicaid. We can accept expansion with the understanding that we have the option to reverse course if the federal government does not honor its commitment.

Yes, Medicaid needs reform, and the impetus for reform is one of the main reasons that I am a proponent for strategic expansion.

We have delineated an aggressive agenda for reform, and the administration is already making a lot of progress to achieve our goals. We have already agreed to expand Medicaid if these goals are met and to suspend our program if the federal government does not honor its commitment. Savings attributed to the revised program would be placed in a special fund in case there are shortfalls in future years.

I am pro-life and support government protections for the unborn. Being pro-life must extend well beyond birth and childhood. I feel it is an appropriate role of government (in our role as protectors of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) that we focus on quality of life for all our citizens by ensuring that adequate health care is both available and affordable for all our citizens.

Monday, August 12, 2013