Virginia passes transportation funding plan.

[Kreutz]

yeah, I read your post, why I was confused. Del. Habeeb:

Dear Friend,

Today, the Virginia House of Delegates adopted changes to Virginia’s two-year state budget and in the process pushed back against the implementation of ObamaCare in Virginia.

One of the major items considered in the budget this year was Medicaid expansion.

The budget adopted today does not expand Medicaid.

Medicaid needs reform. From the very beginning of this General Assembly session, I have said Medicaid reform must come before any consideration is given to Medicaid expansion.
Medicaid is the fastest growing item in the state budget. The costs are spiraling out of control. If we do not reform Medicaid now, we are going to end up with a huge hole in our state budget, no way to pay for it and a broken program.

This budget guarantees that Medicaid will be reformed before ANY CONSIDERATION is given to Medicaid expansion and guarantees that the Republican-controlled House of Delegates will have final control over Medicaid expansion.

The budget establishes the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission. That commission will be made up of 5 Senators and 5 Delegates. That commission is vested with the authority to determine if the reforms made to Medicaid are strong enough for Medicaid expansion to go forward.

That means this commission will have to determine if Medicaid expansion saves Virginia money (estimates now say it could cost $700 million or more) and if the federal government is going to let us determine how we provide care (don’t think President Obama is going to do that).

President Obama has attempted to force ObamaCare on us. Medicaid expansion could absolutely wreck Virginia’s financial system without reforms.

Today we have taken a step to guarantee that Medicaid expansion in Virginia will not happen without first enacting serious reforms and without absolutely ensuring it won’t cost Virginia taxpayers.

I was proud to vote today to push back against ObamaCare and pass a conservative budget that Virginians can be proud of.

I took this to mean it was not expanded. If it is being expanded (especially without controls) this state is fcked.

See CA, NJ, NY, MD, RI.......

[dorminWS]

yup. On paper, Virginia has put guardrails in place that are supposed to let them pull out if the feds run our cost of medicaid too high. That (the cost going too high) is sure to happen, but what happens when they start spouting the talking points about "Virginia's republican death squads euthanizing poor folks by throwing them out of hospitals"? Reminds me of the old joke about what the difference is between a light bulb and a pregnant woman - - - you can UNSCREW a light bulb. Once we get in, how do we get out if it involves any political heat and the current legislature can blame the status quo on a prior legislature? Also, there are big potential problems with Virginia ever bailing out lurking in the very real possibility that we might have a liberal eerrr... excuse me, gunderwood, STATIST democrat in the person of Terry McAulife as governor who will veto anylegislation to do so as well as the possibility that the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission might be held to be an umpermissible delegation of legislative authority and therefore CAN'T take action to bail us out.

Any way you cut it, chances are the GA stepped in deep doo-doo on this one.