Dive Brief:
- The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association has begun a statewide ad campaign to push lawmakers into using Affordable Care Act funding in some form, without calling it Medicaid expansion, to resolve a deadlock on the issue between the state's Republican-controlled House and Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).
- The ad campaign highlights the importance of community healthcare and the threats it faces from growing financial pressures, without directly discussing Medicaid.
- The group's announcement comes as new census data demonstrates that nearby states are seeing dramatic reduction in their uninsured populations due to Medicaid expansion.
Dive Insight:
The hospital group argues there must be alternatives or adaptations to Medicaid expansion that would also work to reduce the ranks of uninsured.
Michael Cassidy, president of the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, says Virginia lawmakers have refused to be creative in reducing coverage gap, according to the Washington Post. He adds nearby states with Republican governors--Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Iowa--have managed to do so by obtaining permission to adjust the program.
The ad campaign, which will run on TV, radio, Internet, buses and billboards, aims to increase public pressure on state legislators in the approach to the November election. “Don’t let government inaction threaten our hospitals,” the Post quotes one ad. “Government mandates and funding cuts threaten jobs, our economy and your health. Virginia hospitals: our lifeline."