Virginia's refusal to expand Medicaid means that 400,000 Virginians remain uninsured and the state may have lost up to 1 billion in federal funds. Yay, Republicans!

William J. Howell

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

The 200th day of 2014 happened to fall this weekend. Depending on which figures you prefer, that means Virginia’s refusal to opt into expanded Medicaid since Jan. 1 has cost the state at least $693 million in federal funding. Democrats say it’s an even $1 billion. 

Those princely sums, which many other states have rushed to capture, would have provided health coverage to some 400,000 currently uninsured Virginians, many of them indigent. It would have cost not one additional dime to Virginia taxpayers, who have already paid for expanding Medicaid in the course of their regular federal tax filings. 

The decision to leave those dollars on the table — an amount that increases by at least $3.46 million per day — is the doing of Republicans in the General Assembly. Those sages of Richmond, led by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, William J. Howell (R-Stafford), have proposed no alternative to providing health coverage to the hundreds of thousands of Virginians who lack it, nor any other method of capturing all or part of the federal funds that remain within Virginia’s grasp, should the state opt into the expansion. 

Instead, Mr. Howell and the Republican House caucus have elected to play political games, calling for the legislature to reconvene to “debate” Medicaid expansion, which they unequivocally oppose.

I know how Virginia feels. Though Alaska has a much smaller population we still have many, many thousands who also fall within the coverage gap left by the fact that our Governor, Sean Parnell, has also refused to accept the federal funds to expand Medicaid.

Hmm, 400,000 that seems like just about enough voters to completely sway an election, don't you think?