Healthcare

Every Virginia should have access to quality and affordable health care for themselves and their families.

Medicaid Expansion

In 2018, Virginia finally expanded Medicaid, our federal-state health insurance program for low-income persons. Hundreds of thousands of Virginians were able to take advantage of the expanded coverage, making Virginia the only state in the country to decrease our uninsured population between 2018 and 2019. Virginia has continued to expand Medicaid since, creating a support network that has been vital to many families throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. As of June 2022, nearly 668,000 individual Virginians have been enrolled in Medicaid Expansion, and of that number, 160,444 are parents. This is a significant number, as we have surpassed the original assessment of 400,000 eligible individuals in Virginia. Fairfax County has the highest enrollment in the Commonwealth, with 50,656 individual enrollees. Of those who have enrolled, 74% have an annual income below the federal poverty level, which is just $12,140 for a single person, or $20,780 for a family of three; 26% of enrollees have an income of up to 138% of the federal poverty level. Since enrollment, more than 82% of Medicaid expansion members have received a Medicaid service and 61% have visited a clinic or a primary care physician. 11,334 Virginians have received treatment for cancer. More than 44,000 individuals have received treatment for a substance use disorder. In addition, many others have sought treatment for chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma and COPD.

Autism Spectrum Care

In the 2019 General Assembly, I voted to remove the age cap on autism spectrum-related health insurance coverage. Autism does not have an age limit, and both children and adults with autism deserve to receive the care they need without worrying about whether the costs will be covered. My 2020 bill HB 1043 sought to eliminate the carve-out for individual and small group plans to make sure families covered by these plans have access to autism care. My bill was incorporated into Delegate Ward's HB 1503, which was signed into law. In 2021, I voted for HB 2216, which expanded the Virginia Missing Child with Autism Alert Program to the Missing Person with Autism Program to ensure all missing people with autism, along with the people looking for them, are equally helped by the Virginia police and public.

Reproductive Healthcare

All people have a right to decide for themselves what to do with their bodies. This includes the decision to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. It is a deeply personal decision that should be between a pregnant person and their doctor and not determined by politicians. I am pro-choice and believe it is wrong to stigmatize those who have chosen to exercise their reproductive rights. Every pregnancy is different. I trust Virginians to make their own important life decisions, and that once they have made the decision to have an abortion, it should be safe, accessible, affordable, and free from punishment or judgment.

In 2020, I voted for the Reproductive Health Protection Act, which repealed state requirements for mandatory ultrasounds and 24 hour wait times. It was a monumental victory, a sign that Virginia was ready to stand by women and all those who can become pregnant. But now Roe v. Wade has been overturned and protecting abortion access and further reproductive rights in Virginia has become paramount.

The Republican majority in the House passed seven anti-abortion bills in 2022, including a ban at twenty weeks, written informed consent, and mandatory, knowably biased counseling, all to make seeking an abortion far more difficult in Virginia. I voted against all of them. They were killed in the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority. During the 2022 special session, Governor Youngkin introduced a budget amendment that would have removed language in the state code that allows for the use health department funds in paying for low income individual seeking abortions in cases in which the fetus will be born with “a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency.” And following the Supreme Court’s new decision on Roe, he is seeking a 15-week abortion ban, likely the first step in trying to restrict access earlier and earlier and earlier until abortion is banned.

I will continue to vote against these harmful measures, and further, I will vote to maintain and increase funding to healthcare providers like Planned Parenthood, which provides critical care to women across Virginia, including prenatal care, mammogram screenings, and STI testing.