ARLINGTON, VA — Virginia elected officials, health care advocates and union leaders gathered Friday at Arlington Central Library to launch a campaign calling on Congress to restore federal health care funding and Affordable Care Act tax credits.
The “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” event marked the Virginia launch of a national campaign organized by Protect Our Care. The advocacy group plans to hold events, elevate patients’ stories and encourage people to contact lawmakers about health care costs and access.
Among the speakers were U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8th), state Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Virginia), Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti, SEIU Virginia State Council Executive Director David Broder and Woodbridge home care worker Joyce Rena Bumbray-Graves.
Bumbray-Graves, 63, said she and her husband previously paid $544 a month for insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. After enhanced federal premium tax credits expired, she said their monthly premium rose to more than $1,300.
Her husband obtained less expensive coverage through his employer, but adding her to that plan would have pushed the cost close to $2,000 a month, she said. She is now uninsured.
Bumbray-Graves provides full-time care to two relatives with severe disabilities. She said she has experienced three pulmonary embolisms and has stopped using a prescribed dry-powder inhaler because it costs more than $300 a month without insurance.
She also needs injections to manage back pain, but each treatment can cost between $700 and $900, she said.
“I work so hard to keep people with disabilities alive, and I can’t afford insurance to ensure that I can stay healthy and capable to continue to take care of them,” Bumbray-Graves said.
She called on Congress to restore the tax credits so she can obtain coverage through the ACA marketplace until she becomes eligible for Medicare.
Bumbray-Graves previously described her loss of coverage during a Jan. 26 hearing of the U.S. House Budget Committee.
Beyer said the federal law passed last year reduced Medicaid funding and contributed to higher costs for people who receive coverage through the ACA marketplace.
“To date, the big ugly bill has cost 100,000 Virginians health care coverage in the ACA marketplace and threatens coverage for 550,000 more people enrolled in Virginia’s Medicaid program,” Beyer said.
Hospitals must continue treating uninsured patients who arrive through emergency departments, leaving facilities to absorb costs that many cannot afford, according to Beyer.
He also cited a finding that 13 rural hospitals face an immediate risk of closing or reducing services. Beyer said restoring the health care funding would be a priority if Democrats regain control of the House.
Favola, who chairs the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee and the Joint Commission on Health Care, said state lawmakers included an emergency Medicaid fund in Virginia’s budget to cushion some federal reductions.
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The state cannot fully replace the lost federal support, however, she said.
“We did what we could at the state level to fill some of those holes,” Favola said. “We do have an emergency Medicaid plan, a Medicaid fund set aside to help a little bit — bolster, buffer some of the cuts — but we will not be able to buffer all of them.”
Favola also said reduced access to rural hospitals could force Virginians to travel an hour or longer for emergency, maternity or acute care.
De Ferranti focused on the effects in Arlington, where he said about 26,000 residents depend on Medicaid.
The county added money for local health care providers and included funding for the Arlington Free Clinic in its most recent budget, he said. Local governments, however, cannot compensate fully for federal reductions.
“We’re spending money to fix a problem that should never have come to us at a time when we absolutely didn’t need it,” de Ferranti said. “We’re playing catch-up on this problem we didn’t have anything to do with creating.”
Protect Our Care Virginia State Director Katie Baker said the organization is not conducting electoral advocacy through the campaign. Its goals are to educate the public, hold lawmakers accountable for their votes and persuade constituents to contact members of Congress, she said.
“We want to make sure that people understand the impacts of them, and we want people blowing up the phones of these members of Congress who voted for these cuts, so that we can change hearts and change minds,” Baker said.
The campaign will continue through public events, patient storytelling, digital outreach and a nationwide bus tour planned for the fall.
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