The Half Sheet

Today’s Census data on the number of Virginians who remain without any health insurance are a stark reminder of the costs of failing to close the coverage gap. Closing this gap would be good for all of us.

Virginia lawmakers have the opportunity to help economically challenged, uninsured moms and their children get the care they need to be healthy and productive. The well-being of all women and children is too important to ignore.

Virginia is facing yet another round of potential cuts to vital protections for families and key investments in the future…

African-American Virginians and immigrant Virginians face different types of law enforcement contact, but both groups are too often being “policed” rather than “protected,” and members of both communities often face far harsher punishments for the same crimes than U.S. born white Virginians.

Many immigrants and African-American Virginians have significant family caretaking responsibilities, but are less likely than others to have access to key options that would allow them to better balance work and family responsibilities.

Virginia residents may face another round of cuts to vital services because state revenues are coming in lower than expected. And, once again, a common sense solution to saving the state money and boosting Virginia’s economy is staring right at lawmakers: closing the health care coverage gap. Closing the gap could inject roughly $2 billion in federal money per year into Virginia, help as many as 400,000 low-paid Virginians get the medical care they need to be healthy and productive, and protect vital services from cuts by saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

This Saturday the national Fight for 15 movement will rally in Richmond to fight for a $15 minimum wage and “connect to the broader fight for immigrant justice, Black Lives Matter, and against racism.” This rally comes at an important time.

Too many African-American and immigrant Virginians are locked out of health insurance due to decisions by Virginia’s legislature. Virginia lawmakers have made a number of choices to limit access to health insurance, including in some cases where the federal government would cover all the cost. By not closing the health care coverage gap, policymakers have left 230,000 Virginians without insurance. On top of that, Virginia places additional barriers – above-and-beyond the five-year waiting period that federal law requires – for lawfully present immigrants before they can obtain health insurance through the state’s meager Medicaid.

Racially restrictive covenants may no longer be legal, but Virginia as a whole, and its largest metro areas, continue to have high levels of segregation. The “index of dissimilarity” is one way to measure this, examining how people are distributed across a region compared to the distribution of another group of people. Comparing where Black, Asian, and Hispanic Virginians live to where white Virginians live shows the highest levels of separation for Black Virginians. But it shows some degree of segregation for Asian and Hispanic Virginians, too. 

Within the good news that Virginia’s unemployment rate is the lowest in eight years is the not-so-great news that one reason for the drop is that Virginia’s labor force has shrunk a bit. 

More than 1 of every 7 African-American Virginians and almost 1 in 5 foreign-born Virginians lack a high school diploma. With employers increasingly requiring a high school education just to get in the door, whether or not a diploma is truly required for the job duties, people who have not completed high school face significant challenges. When combined with the continued existence of employment discrimination, many adults in both African-American and immigrant communities face challenges finding jobs.

State funding cuts for higher education have increased tuition and mandatory fees at Virginia’s public universities, making college less affordable, and jeopardizing the ability of many students to receive the college education that is key to their long-term financial success and essential to growing Virginia’s economy.