To: Chris L. Hurst (VA-12)

Expand Medicaid

Expand Medicaid for 191,000 poor and disabled Virginians. Expanding Medicaid will help create 30,000 new jobs and save Virginia taxpayers billions of dollars per year.

Why is this important?

There's a critical special legislative session happening next week in Richmond that will determine whether nearly 200,000 Virginians gain access to health care.

The question is whether Virginia will accept federal Medicaid funds, as Obamacare encourages. 1) Other Republican-led states have done it. 2) Virginia voters strongly support it. And the state Senate just passed it. But right now, some Republicans in the House of Delegates are standing in the way.

If they continue to block Medicaid expansion, they'll be catering to an extreme slice of their own base rather than helping get health care to the state's neediest residents. If just a handful of Republican delegates listen to their constituents, then Medicaid expansion can still pass and a government shutdown can be avoided.

That's possible. It's worked in other states. And our state delegate—Del. Joseph Yost—could be the key vote in passing Medicaid expansion in Virginia. That's why it's critical that we let Del. Yost know that we support expansion.

Expanding Medicaid access to Virginia's poor and disabled is the right thing to do on so many fronts: It will save lives. It will create jobs. And it will save Virginia taxpayers billions of dollars.