December 19, 2012

Governor Bob McDonnell has now decided that Virginia will be doing very little on health care reform.   Despite previous votes of the General Assembly and the value it will have for small business, McDonnell will NOT propose a state Health Benefits Exchange (HBE). He will allow the federal government to run the HBE in Virginia. The Governor will also ask Virginia NOT to accept billions in federal money to expand Medicaid to cover over 400,000 Virginians (and create at least 30,000 jobs). 

Both of the decisions can be changed by the General Assembly when it begins in January. VMSA is working to meet with members of the General Assembly to explain how health care reform really does benefit small businesses and urging the GA to change the Governor’s policies. 

Virginia Organizing has a petition to the General Assembly pushing for health care reform. Go to http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/o/23/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=467

For information about the General Assembly, or to find out who your legislators are, go to http://virginiageneralassembly.gov/

Our political leaders in Washington, D.C. are slowly working their way towards a solution to the “fiscal cliff” (the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that could put the country back in recession). Although anything is still possible, it looks like health care reform will not be sacrificed. It also looks like some of the middle class tax increases will be stopped and that the massive cuts to spending will be postponed. On the other hand, cuts to Medicare and Social Security still seem to be on the table, and many politicians continue to fight for more tax cuts for the rich. Virginia Senator Mark Warner continues to be a key player in this debate. You can contact him with your thoughts at http://www.warner.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?p=ContactPage

VMSA is putting together a report we plan to send to the General Assembly: SMALL BUSINESS and HEALTH CARE REFORM, Small Business Owners Speak for Themselves. The report will be a collection of interviews or stories from small business people about health care reform in Virginia. We want to get as many interviews as possible so we can show our legislators the importance of health care reform for small business.  We are videoing the interviews and some folks are willing to share their stories. You can see some of the video interviews we have already done at http://www.youtube.com/user/VOPVideo or read transcripts at http://www.virginia-organizing.org/category/issues/small-business. If you are interested in being interviewed, contact Bob Becker at bob@bobbecker.org  

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