· Shelley Koch · Blog article · 3 min read
Medicaid Cuts
Over 150,000 Virginians could lose Medicaid coverage and almost half a million would feel the effects in lost and reduced services.
Last updated: September 22, 2025
Cutting Medicaid in Virginia
The Big Beautiful Bill budget cut Medicaid, but the current debate on the Continuing Resolution to keep the government open offers some leverage to restore the cuts. Here’s what we can do.
We can contact Senators Kaine and Warner and tell them to stay strong and demand that the Medicaid cuts are restored. 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. Here’s the link to send that message.
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 protests in front of Rep. Griffith’s office every Friday at 4:30 (323 W Main St, Abingdon, VA) and every Tuesday at 4:30 at the Exit 44 overpass in Marion.
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.
The budget makes $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 so called savings 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 will 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.
