The Half Sheet

On May 4, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made a cruel, shortsighted and dangerous decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hondurans at the start of 2020, meaning that they will have to leave the country voluntarily, somehow gain an alternative immigration status quickly, or be subject to deportation when their status expires. 

More than 1,200 people in Virginia died from an opioid overdose in 2017, and hundreds more from other drug overdoses. These alarming numbers are part of a national trend that has seen significant increases in opioid related deaths. To help deal with this crisis, Virginia launched a new program last year called Addiction and Recovery Treatment Services (ARTS). A little over a year into implementation, ARTS is already receiving national recognition for increasing treatment and reducing emergency room visits for people with substance use disorders (SUD). 

Voting along party lines, Congressional Republicans are proposing to decrease nutritional assistance for low-income families in the Farm Bill, creating a partisan fight over a bill that has long had bipartisan support. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the most effective anti-hunger program in the country, supports over 374,000 households (794,780 individuals) on average each month in Virginia. But the newest Farm Bill proposal – passed by the House Agriculture Committee on April 18 and could be voted on by the full House this month – will end or cut SNAP benefits for many people, while setting up costly bureaucratic hurdles to qualify that do more harm than good. 

Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on a dispute between South Dakota and the online retailer Wayfair over whether Wayfair is responsible for collecting sales tax for purchases and sending it to the state. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of South Dakota, policymakers in Virginia and other states should take notice and act to make sure big multi-state online retailers are collecting and remitting sales tax for residents of their states. 

The state legislature has returned to Richmond to approve a new two-year state budget, and they’ll be making important decisions on more than Medicaid expansion. They will also be deciding on state investment in other vital programs and services across the budget, including where the state invests in K-12 education. One proposal they will be considering is whether they will strengthen Virginia’s targeted aid to high poverty school divisions. Recent studies make the case for why that’s a wise investment. 

The budgets passed by the Virginia House and Senate highlight two different pathways to improve health care access for the commonwealth: one concrete and funded, the other aspirational. While the House has welcomed federal funds to extend health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-income Virginians, the Senate aims to prioritize individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). Unfortunately, the Senate does not have the funding to implement their priorities. But if the Senate agrees to the Medicaid expansion proposal put forth by the House, they could use the savings from that to also help more individuals with ID/DD. The budget impasse could transform to a win-win situation for both chambers. 

The budgets passed by the Virginia House and Senate highlight two different pathways to improve health care access for the commonwealth: one concrete and funded, the other aspirational. While the House has welcomed federal funds to extend health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-income Virginians, the Senate aims to prioritize individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). Unfortunately, the Senate does not have the funding to implement their priorities. But if the Senate agrees to the Medicaid expansion proposal put forth by the House, they could use the savings from that to also help more individuals with ID/DD. The budget impasse could transform to a win-win situation for both chambers.

Many of Virginia’s rural hospitals are facing financial challenges. In 2015, almost half of the state’s rural hospitals were operating in the red, and the situation is projected to get worse in the years ahead. Yet policymakers have an opportunity to help fix this. When the General Assembly returns on April 11 to finish work on the state’s two-year budget, lawmakers will again face the decision of whether to accept federal funds to expand health coverage to more low-income Virginians. When it comes to supporting rural hospitals, the decision is straightforward. Reducing the number of uninsured Virginians through Medicaid expansion will help rural hospitals keep their doors open. 

This legislative session, Virginia lawmakers adopted an anti-immigrant bill that harms immigrant families in the state while likely having no actual impact on immigration policy.

More than 10,000 veterans in Virginia could get quality, affordable health care coverage through Medicaid expansion. But only if lawmakers accept federal funds to expand health care coverage. Legislators have the opportunity to show that they too support our veterans by expanding Medicaid when they reconvene for a special legislative session starting April 11th.

When lawmakers return to Richmond on April 11, they’ll have the opportunity to improve the lives of more than 118,000 women in the commonwealth who are uninsured and could gain coverage if Virginia expands its Medicaid program. Doing so would turn Virginia’s current swiss cheese system of limited health benefits and arbitrary income cut-offs for low-income working women into access to comprehensive, affordable health care through the state’s managed care Medicaid program. 

Virginia’s 2018 regular legislative session has come to a close. While disappointing in some respects – legislators adjourned without having reached agreement on the 2018-2020 budget– it saw the birth of new, promising partnerships across regional and party differences. Legislators representing cities and rural communities found common ground in efforts to strengthen struggling communities and address the challenges of heightened poverty.