Virginia’s decision to expand Medicaid under Obamacare will make its first big splash on Nov. 1, when newly-eligible residents can begin enrolling in coverage that takes effect on New Year’s Day, Gov. Ralph Northam said Thursday.
Mr. Northam, a Democrat, said the Trump administration approved the state’s plan to expand coverage to up to 400,000 Virginians making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still reviewing Virginia’s request for a waiver that conditions the new benefits on seeking work or engaging in the community.
“They’re running parallel, but they’re on a different schedule,” Mr. Northam told a D.C. summit hosted by America’s Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group for health insurers.
Work requirements were a key selling point for Republicans who dropped a multi-year blockade to expansion after sweeping electoral losses in 2017.
Mr. Northam, who cruised into the governor’s mansion as part of that blue wave, said the state’s decision to expand the federal-state insurance program for the poor made sense on multiple levels.
It was the moral thing to do, since more people could see the doctor, and the state’s health care economy will see an injections of federal funding, he said.
Under Affordable Care Act, the federal government picks up most of the cost of expansion — a share that slides from 94 percent this year to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.
Mr. Northam said rural Republicans realized the financial support would attract doctors to hospitals in their districts and expand coverage to treat opioid addiction.
Plus, Virginians already were funding the expansion in dozens of other states through their federal tax dollars.
“Don’t be sending those dollars to other states when you could use them in your own state,” Mr. Northam said.
Virginia has created the website www.coverva.org to help residents apply for Medicaid.
Voters in red states — Nebraska, Utah and Idaho — will decide on Election Day whether to join the 34 states, and the District of Columbia, that have expanded Medicaid under the 2010 health law.
One of those states, Maine, used the ballot last year to approve expansion. But Republican Gov. Paul LePage has refused to carry it out until state lawmakers devise a sustainable funding stream for the state’s share of the cost.
Mr. LePage on Thursday said the expansion will get funded as soon as Democrats stop acting like it’s “free.”
“There’s a $200 million price tag that is due from our state in order to make it work,” Mr. LePage told C-SPAN. “I just believe in good fiscal responsibility. I believe in paying our bills. I just think that if they fund it, we can get it done.”
“For some reason,” he said, “they just have refused to acknowledge that it costs money.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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