Richmond, VA - New Virginia Majority issued the following statement on Medicaid Expansion Budget Amendment: We applaud today’s announcement by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe about plans to expand Medicaid eligibility for Virginians. Medicaid funds healthcare for low-income people and has popular bipartisan support in the Commonwealth and across the country. 

Yet Virginia Republicans have consistently blocked Medicaid expansion. Expanding Medicaid eligibility would provide an estimated 400,000 Virginians with health care, particularly those in low-income communities of color. How Republicans vote on this budget amendment will be a test of whether they have learned any lessons from the failure of Trumpcare or whether they will continue to obstruct health care for hundreds of thousands, despite declarations by both the Supreme Court and Speaker Paul Ryan that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land.

###

New Virginia Majority builds power in working-class communities of color across the Commonwealth. We organize for racial and economic justice through large-scale political education, mobilization, and advocacy around dozens of issues. We fight for a Virginia that is just, democratic, and environmentally sustainable.