Virginia 33rd State to Expand Medicaid

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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2 Responses

  1. Michael Cain says:

    When the SCOTUS issued their opinion in Sebelius, my position was that the “Medicaid expansion optional” piece was a bone thrown to the conservatives because Roberts believed no state would refuse the expansion for long. Some of the other changes made by the ACA meant that in a non-expansion state their hospitals were going to have to pick up the tab for a lot more charity care. The last votes needed in the Virginia legislature came from the rural southwestern part of the state, where hospitals are on the verge of folding without the expanded Medicaid money. I’m surprised that there are still states holding out.Report

    • Kolohe in reply to Michael Cain says:

      The non-ideological reason for opposition was supposedly* that while the Federal government picked up a lot of cost in the near term, there was the potential (or inevitablity) of there being a lot higher tab for the state governments in the medium/long term, a growing entitlement that, unlike the feds, they couldn’t borrow their way out of.

      *supposedly because I don’t know the empirical truth basis of the claim. It’s plausible, but I haven’t looked at the numbers in any detail, and it’s possible that it’s changed since initial implementation because of the change in rules.Report