House Republicans this morning maintained that their openness toward Medicaid expansion is contingent upon fixes to the current system.
“It is universal that we do reforms first, that’s the way to get to expansion, because the program as it is today is broken,” said Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, at a GOP news conference.
“But I am confident that at the end of the day, reforms is what we’ll deal with first and if we need to, we can certainly come back later during the year to deal with the issue on the expansion of Medicaid,” Jones added.
The Virginia Senate has cleared the way for the state to expand its Medicaid program to more uninsured Virginians under the Affordable Care Act.
On Thursday, the Senate approved a budget amendment that would allow Virginia to expand Medicaid on Jan. 1 if the state is able to make significant reforms in how it delivers and pays for health care under the program. The Senate then voted 36-4 to approve its amendments to the two-year state budget.
On the same day, the House voted 74-22 to adopt a budget that would require reform of the state's entire Medicaid program and approval by the General Assembly next year before the program could expand.
