In an open letter to Senator Thomas K. Norment in the Virginia Gazette, Christine Payne of Williamsburg calls on the state senator to allow Medicaid expansion to come to a vote. Payne is a nurse and a member of the Virginia Nurses Association, which supports Medicaid expansion. From the article:

“As co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, my representative, Sen. Thomas K. Norment, has great influence over the continued momentum of that progress. He has not scheduled a meeting for that committee to work on the biennial budget until May 14. So I sought him out in an attempt to advocate for the most vulnerable in our communities.

Pointing out the House’s tightened work requirement for able-bodied recipients as an area of compromise, I hoped Sen. Norment might see a way to agree that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. He conveyed his opinion that the work requirement was “a joke.” When I asked if he was really willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater, he told me he was “ready to throw out the whole (darn) tub!”

Medicaid Expansion is supported by the majority of voters, even in red districts such as ours. More than 4,600 constituents, Republicans and Democrats, would be affected.”

Read the full article here.