Americans for Prosperity Statement on Virginia Budget Breakdown

Mar 8, 2018 by AFP

RICHMOND, Va. – Americans for Prosperity-Virginia on Thursday reacted to the General Assembly’s budget breakdown over Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. AFP-VA, the state’s leading free-market grassroots organization, has been at the forefront of opposing Medicaid expansion, as it is detrimental to state budgets and adversely effects those whom the program was intended to help such as the needy and elderly.

AFP-VA State Director JC Hernandez issued the following statement:

“Supporters of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare won’t take ‘No’ for answer and it’s causing Washington-style gridlock and delay. The General Assembly owes Virginians a clean and balanced budget, Instead, Delegate Jones and House conferees play politics and hold the budget hostage to the detriment of Virginia’s teachers, sheriffs, public workers, and students. This is reckless and Virginia deserves better.

“Congress has already repealed key taxes that underwrote federal funding for states to pay for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and just last week the Trump Administration reminded Virginia that ‘the President’s Budget repeals Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.’ The message is unmistakable and lawmakers should put this idea out of its misery and pull Medicaid expansion out of the budget.

“We urge all House lawmakers to end the Obamacare gridlock and join the Senate in passing a clean budget.”

Background:

AFP activists have made tens of thousands of phone calls encouraging constituents to urge their legislators to vote against these dangerous bills.

Virginians sent thousands of emails directly to legislators urging them to vote against Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid is simply not cost effective. Researchers from MIT, Harvard, and Dartmouth found that Medicaid recipients only receive about 20 to 40 cents of benefit for every dollar spent on Medicaid. Insurance companies, not low-income citizens, are the biggest winners of Medicaid expansion. Kaiser Health News recently reported that Medicaid insurer profits more than tripled in 34 states and the District of Columbia after Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

For further information or an interview, reach Lorenz Isidro at LIsidro@afphq.org or (703) 887-7724.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) exists to recruit, educate, and mobilize citizens in support of the policies and goals of a free society at the local, state, and federal level, helping every American live their dream – especially the least fortunate. AFP has more than 3.2 million activists across the nation, a local infrastructure that includes 36 state chapters, and has received financial support from more than 100,000 Americans in all 50 states. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org

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