Last updated: June 10, 2025

Cutting Medicaid in Virginia

The House of Representatives passed the Big Beautiful Bill on May 22, 2025. This budget bill now has to go through the Senate. If the Senate changes any wording at all, it will go back to the House for another vote. So we still have time to make our voices heard. What we can do:

• We can contact Senators Kaine and Warner on this bill. Each day their offices tally the number and content of calls so even if you don’t get a response your message is in the record. See these resources about the Medicaid situation from Indivisible. Keep calling Griffith too!

• Knowing the facts is important to combat misinformation.

• Grassroots actions are important because they signal to decision-makers that people are not happy with the decisions being made, and create favorable conditions for legislators and judges to resist the administration. We have overpass protests every week (Exit 44 in Marion 4:30-5:30 every Tuesday), No Kings Day protest on June 14, and other opportunities to connect with people and create new events in our Take Action group.

• It is easy to get desensitized with everything happening all at once. THIS IS NOT OK. Do not get used to it and let it become our new normal. We are fighting for a more just world where all people have their needs met and can participate in making the rules of society.

We will be providing general information on important parts of this bill as it relates to our area. In this article the topic is Medicaid.

The House bill proposes up to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts over a decade. Medicaid provides medical insurance and services for children in low-income households, seniors, people with disabilities, and others with limited income.¹ These cuts are needed to pay for the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which benefit corporations and the wealthy while increasing the deficit by $4 trillion.

Most of the proposed savings would come from adding a work requirement to Medicaid for able-bodied people 18-64 without dependents. They would be required to do 20 hours of work or community service; however the documentation required to prove this work as well as new application procedures will make it much more logistically difficult to get the benefit.

• 161,614 Virginians could lose Medicaid coverage², and
• 488,000 Virginians could be affected in some way³.

Rural hospitals would also be affected. 36% of rural hospitals in VA are operating in the red⁴ with Medicaid an important part of their revenue. Many of these hospitals could close, leaving people without healthcare and providers without jobs. Emergency rooms are still required by the federal government to treat anyone who seeks care, so Virginia taxpayers could see higher taxes or medical costs with more people using ER rooms instead of Medicare primary coverage.

Legislators often use Medicaid fraud as a smokescreen to make cuts. This is simply false. Most of Medicaid fraud happens at the doctor’s office through improper billing practices, not by individual beneficiaries. The budget bill would do nothing to crack down on this type of fraud.