| BREAKING: Youngkin “Fully Embraces” Trump’s Tax Bill, Dismisses Risk of 322,000 Virginians Losing Access to Health Care In a new report from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Glenn Youngkin “fully embraced” Trump’s tax bill that will gut access to affordable health care and shut down hospitals and nursing homes. When pressed by reporters on the risk that 322,000 Virginians could lose health coverage under the law, Youngkin dismissed the figure as “made up.” “There’s nothing more disappointing — and in times like these, more disheartening — than a Governor who consistently chooses to stand with and defend Donald Trump’s extreme agenda instead of fighting for the hundreds of thousands of Virginians at risk of losing life-saving health care,” said DPVA Chairman Lamont Bagby. “Youngkin’s latest comments make it painfully clear: the stakes couldn’t be higher. That’s why we must fight harder than ever to elect leaders like Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi, Jay Jones, and expand our Democratic majority in the House.” Richmond Times-Dispatch: Youngkin lauds federal budget bill, plays down Medicaid cuts - “Gov. Glenn Youngkin fully embraces the massive federal tax-and-spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last week, including cuts to Medicaid that Democrats and state hospitals say would cause hundreds of thousands of Virginians to lose health care coverage and potentially threaten the survival of small rural hospitals.”
- “Democrats on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee estimate that more than 322,000 Virginians will lose health coverage under the bill’s provisions for Medicaid and the expected expiration of enhanced federal premium subsidies for insurance.”
- “‘The number that the Democrats are throwing around on Virginians who will lose health coverage is made up,’ Youngkin said, asserting that the measure’s critics rely on ‘extreme, extreme assumptions.’”
- “The Kaiser Family Foundation said last week that Virginia is one of the states hit hardest by the Medicaid cuts in the new law, losing between $25 billion to $41 billion in federal funding over 10 years. The midpoint in that range, $33 billion, represents a 21% loss in funding.”
- “Youngkin did not address the biggest threat that Virginia hospitals see in the budget bill, which the U.S. Senate reshaped to sharply reduce existing provider taxes that the state relies upon to pay its share of Medicaid expansion costs […]”
- “Youngkin also played down the effect of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, under the new law.”
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