by Ann Ridgeway
As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Nick Freitas (R-HD30) can get his family health insurance through the Virginia State Employee System. Yet, as we presented previously, Freitas so strongly opposed affordable healthcare – including healthcare that covers people with pre-existing conditions – for residents of his district, that he helped his wife, Tina, run against Virginia Senior Senator Emmett Hangar (R-SD24) for having supported Medicaid expansion in Virginia…bringing affordable health care to presently 452,000 people. In that campaign, Senator Hanger stated his belief that caring for underserved communities is a Christian Imperative. Nick Freitas apparently disagrees with that.
In the 30th House of Delegates District, we all understand how affordable healthcare and prescription drugs are basic needs for all people and directly affect our quality of life. The fact is, all people have the chance to be born with a pre-existing condition or develop one as we age. Yet Nick Freitas seems to be blind to this subject, or simply not care.
Click here to see Brenda Clements, the Director of the Madison Free Clinic, talk about her conversation with Freitas on healthcare. According to Clements, during that conversation, she told Freitas she believed Christians should support the underserved, Mathew:25. His response was “It is not up to the government to do that, it is up to the churches.” Yet Freitas’ record shows that in 2018, he supported the Trump-promoted, inexpensive, short-term-care health insurance policies that often did not include the pre-existing conditions that would make them be in compliance with the Affordable Care Act.
Also, in 2019 Freitas was the only member of the General Assembly to vote against legislation that allowed children diagnosed with autism to not age out of their parents health insurance plan.
Last year, when I ran against Nick Freitas for the House of Delegates, he never said anything about healthcare issues for the people of the 30th district. He still does not have healthcare as an issue on his present 7th District Congressional Campaign website. In contrast, affordable healthcare and prescription drugs were on my platform, and I planned to submit proposed legislation to put a cap of $30 on insulin prices. We all know people are dying because they are unable to pay the exorbitant cost of their insulin. I was very relieved when Delegate Lee Carter picked up this fight with his legislation (HB66). For his part, Nick Freitas turned against the people in the 30th district who suffer from diabetes, as well as their family and friends, when he was absent for the first vote on HB66. And on March 5, 2020 Freitas’ true beliefs on pre-existing conditions were made clear, when he and four other delegates voted “No” on the final passage of the bill in the House.
Would you want someone like this representing you in Congress? Fortunately, there’s a much better choice – Abigail Spanberger – who VA07 voters should reelect on November 3!
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