The Half Sheet

With virtually no upside for the vast majority of rural residents, the AHCA is a dangerous deal for some of our state’s most challenged communities.

Each of the candidates has released a platform for how they plan to improve educational opportunities in Virginia. We have collected these positions from the campaign websites and news releases and listed them here as a resource. This list may not be comprehensive, so please check out the links to the campaign websites for further details.

Key provisions of the Affordable Care Act benefit older adults, increasing access to care, quality of care, and cost. It isn’t perfect, particularly in states like Virginia where Medicaid has not been expanded. But the proposed “cures” of the American Health Care Act are worse than the supposed ills of the ACA.

Deportations and discriminatory rhetoric don’t just hurt unauthorized immigrants, they hurt our families, our communities, and our state by diminishing the readiness and well-being of a large segment of our future workforce.

Reduced state support for public education has negatively impacted Virginia classrooms, from the bustling shorelines of Hampton Roads to the green mountaintops of the Appalachians.

As part of our work to inform ongoing debates in Virginia around fiscal policy issues, we took a look at some recent tax proposals at the center of current debates – from candidates for Governor and from the most recent General Assembly session. 

While free clinics do an outstanding job providing vital services to 75,000 low-income uninsured adults each year in Virginia, Medicaid expansion could provide continual coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income Virginians

Every student in Virginia deserves a fair shot at success in the classroom and after they graduate. Limited staffing and deteriorating facilities is no way to prepare students and Virginia’s future workforce with the skills and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century.

Despite paying taxes, unauthorized immigrants are not offered many of the social services that their taxes pay for. Essential safety net services such as Medicaid or the Earned Income Tax Credit, are not offered to unauthorized immigrants in any form, with very few exceptions. Furthermore, unauthorized immigrants in Virginia also pay a higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes than the wealthiest 1 percent of Virginians.

As tax day approaches, we celebrate the successes of the EITC in helping hard-working Virginians make ends meet. We should also support efforts to make it even more effective in helping workers and creating a fairer tax system.

Not expanding Medicaid is shutting the door on the most expansive and effective way to substantially address and begin curbing this epidemic.

Lawmakers in Congress have a choice to make: will they move forward with a new scheme that gives generous tax breaks to the wealthy, or will they abandon that ill-conceived plan and get to work making it easier for average people to get health care.