What Virginia's Vote Means for the Future of Medicaid Expansion
With state legislators deciding this week to extend the program to 400,000 citizens, the drawn-out battle over Obamacare’s signature provision draws nearer to an end.
Lost in the manifold dramas of the Trump administration is the fact that one of the main sagas of the Obama administration is finding its way to a close. After the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid in 2010 to the whole of the American poor, it launched a struggle that would play out in hospitals, courts, and statehouses around the country. Expansion would soon become a referendum on the project of health reform, with blue states adopting it quickly, and Republican-led states resisting.
But as the national consensus began to change around health reform, even in the deepest reaches, that now makes 33 states (and Washington, D.C.) that have chosen to expand Medicaid—and according to voters, there may be more to come.
