Steve Helber/AP – House Speaker William Howell (R-Stafford), right, talks with House Appropriations Committee chairman, Del. Chris Jones (R-Suffolk) at the Capitol in Richmond on Wednesday.
Of the 50 House districts with the highest percentage of Medicaid recipients, 32 are represented by Republicans, according to a study by three political scientists at the University of Mary Washington.
Those legislators are willing to forgo the federal largesse rather than risk a primary challenge by tea party candidates accusing them of betraying the conservative cause.
State legislators have spent much time this winter warning about the dangers of growing entitlement programs. But it seems many of them have a rather healthy sense of entitlement themselves, at the expense of state taxpayers.
According to The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, more than 100 of the 139 members of the General Assembly (one seat is vacant) have signed up to be part of the health insurance plan for state workers, and they’ve added more than 200 spouses and children to the program as well.” –Roanoke Times Editorial Board
Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell (R-Stafford) is leading the campaign to block Medicaid expansion even though the largest hospital in his Fredericksburg district says it desperately needs the money to continue supporting health care for the city’s poor.
Fred Rankin, chief executive of the nonprofit parent of Mary Washington Hospital, said rebuffing expansion would cost his institution $14 million a year available under the Affordable Care Act. That would threaten the hospital’s support for a free clinic and community health centers that serve low-income people.
“The stakes are dramatic,” Rankin said. “Those safety net programs are in jeopardy.”
Rankin also said he knows Howell well but is baffled by the legislator’s inflexibility.
“We have disagreed over the years, but I have always found him to have an open mind and be willing to compromise,” Rankin said. “This time, it appears that he is really drawing the line in the sand around no compromise. . . . It’s a behavior I haven’t seen in the past.”