Unbelievable - Gov. McDonell Proposes Enormous Healthcare Cuts

Hello Friends --

The Commonwealth Institute, a non-partisan economic analysis group, has provided an analysis of the Governor's proposed healthcare cuts.

Throughout my years in Virginia, I have repeatedly come across reports of Virginia's low rate of funding, often 50th of 50 states, for a number of programs. Now the Governor proposes to balance the state's budget via enormous cuts to Medicaid, community health care providers, and long-term care.

We're already near the bottom of the list of states in healthcare expenditures (only ten states pay less per capita than Virginia, according to Kaiser Family Foundation), and with these indiscriminate 50% across the board cuts to all healthcare expenditures, we will surely become the worst of all. And we will surely see more misery, and premature deaths in the Commonwealth if these cuts become law.

 With the Affordable Healthcare Reform Act under assault from numerous states, and the conservative Supreme Court scheduled to hear the case against the bill, if these changes take effect, they are going to be extremely difficult to reverse, even if the AHR Act is overturned. The Governor's party has seized control of the legislature, and so these cuts are very likely to become reality.

 This session in Richmond could see the greatest roll back for families, women, LGBT, elderly, low-income, students, the environment that we could not even imagine a year ago. Uranium mining in Fairfax County is a possibility as there are deposits there, and with a high price for the element in world markets, and a willing legislature and Governor, that's what we'll probably get after the bigger deposits are extracted down state.