Gov. Terry McAuliffe
Gov. Terry McAullife announced Monday the launch of A Healthy Virginia, a plan he says will expand healthcare services to more than 200,000 citizens.
The plan addresses several areas, including mental health, health insurance, children’s coverage, dental benefits for pregnant women, treatment for drug addicts and veteran care. The 10 steps in the plan are staggered, with some set to start this month, like helping to enroll eligible children in Medicaid. Other parts of the plan come later, with all 10 steps underway by July.
“As governor, there is no greater responsibility than ensuring the health and safety of the citizens you serve. That is why I am so proud to stand here today and unveil ‘A Healthy Virginia’ — a plan that will improve the lives of more than 200,000 citizens throughout the Commonwealth,” McAuliffe said in a news release announcing the new program.
The governor has been battling the General Assembly to expand Medicaid in Virginia as prescribed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — more commonly known as Obamacare — since he took office earlier this year. The expansion, which Democrats say would bring health insurance to up to 400,000 uninsured citizens, has gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates.
The General Assembly will meet in a special session Sept. 18 to continue discussing Medicaid expansion.
After the control of the Senate of Virginia shifted to Republicans in June, McAuliffe announced he was ordering Secretary of Health & Human Resources Bill Hazel to create a plan by September “detailing how we can move Virginia health care forward even in the face of demagoguery, lies, fear and cowardice that have gripped this debate for far too long,” he said at the time.
The plan announced Monday is built on four emergency regulations, an executive order and “innovative and creative solutions to expand health care to Virginia veterans, children and families,” according to the release. The governor said the plan addresses “urgent health needs” while putting the state on “a pathway toward building a new Virginia economy.”
McAuliffe will have to go through the General Assembly to expand Medicaid. Expansion was at the heart of a bitter and prolonged fight between the governor and the General Assembly that pushed passage of the state’s budget into June, nearly causing a shut down of the state government. The final budget contained language requiring the governor to have the approval of the General Assembly before dispersing any funds to pay for expansion.
A Healthy Virginia stops far short of closing the coverage gap for all uninsured citizens — it extends health insurance to about 20,000 uninsured citizens with severe mental illnesses and to 5,000 children of lower-income state employees via the Family Access to medical Insurance Security plan.
The plan is designed to use state and federal resources to help encourage an additional 35,000 children to enroll in FAMIS and 160,000 citizens to use the federal marketplace to find health insurance. The state has $4.3 million in grant funding from the federal government for this end and has applied for an additional $10 million in funding to further boost outreach efforts, according to the release.
The expanded mental health care services are central to the plan, which calls for the creation of the Governor’s Access Plan, the vehicle by which the 20,000 uninsured citizens with severe mental illnesses will receive coverage. The plan also authorizes the state’s Department of Medical Assistance Services to coordinate and regulate care for adults and children with serious mental illnesses who are already enrolled in Medicaid.
“The urgency of the need for accessible mental health care for Virginians cannot be ignored even in the absence of Medicaid expansion,” Hazel wrote in the introduction to the plan. “A Healthy Virginia expands coverage to uninsured Virginians with acute mental health needs so that all Virginians can live, work, learn, parent, and participate fully in our great Commonwealth.”
Hazel cautions the plan is “no substitute” for Medicaid expansion, referring to it as the “initial critical steps” to increase coverage in the state.
The plan will also seek to boost traffic on Cover Virginia, a website with educational resources pertaining to Medicaid, FAMIS and other health care programs.
The announcement of the plan and its provisions for reducing deaths from prescription drug and heroin overdoses — which in 2013 killed more citizens in Virginia than car accidents, according to the release — coincides with an announcement Monday from Attorney General Mark Herring that he is seeking a package of new laws and programs to try to curb the epidemic of deaths.
Del. Monty Mason (D-93) issued a statement following Monday’s announcement praising the governor for the plan, noting it will help residents of the Historic Triangle.
“The list of groups of deserving Virginians who will be impacted by this plan is long,” Mason said in the statement. “We have veterans in the 93rd who need critical health services, and children who have just started back to our public schools with no health care.”
“[McAuliffe has] taken a bold step today to extend services and coverage to those who badly need them,” Herring said in a news release. “It’s an important move, and Virginians now need the General Assembly to step up and do its part to close the coverage gap.”
Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam echoed Herring in a separate news release, encouraging the General Assembly to use the special session later this month to “find common ground for those Virginians whose health and lives depends on it.”
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