Republican cuts to Medicaid and SNAP could leave Virginians without critical care and food assistance

Proposed budget cuts threaten access to essential services for low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities across Virginia.

House Republicans on Wednesday advanced legislation that would see major cuts to health care and food assistance for the poor to usher in massive tax cuts for corporations and the rich. 

The proposed budget cuts aim to shift more of the costs of America’s social safety net onto states already bracing for a potential recession. Virginia, for example, recently set aside $900 million as a cushion against a possible economic downturn caused either by federal workforce cuts and to counteract President Donald Trump’s global trade war.

More than 8 million Americans are expected to lose health insurance if the bill is passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by Trump. 

Roughly half a million people in Virginia could be affected by proposed Medicaid work requirements included in the legislation, according to reporting by Elizabeth Beyer and Emily Schabacker at Cardinal News. Medicaid work requirements are popular among conservatives but data shows that most Medicaid recipients are already working if they don’t face barriers to work, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. 

Nearly 2 million people in Virginia are enrolled in Medicaid. About 630,000 residents could lose coverage if federal funding drops due to a provision included in the Virginia legislation that expanded Medicaid coverage in 2019. Virginia lawmakers have said they may have to meet in Richmond to figure out an appropriate response. 

“These rushed, draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will take away health care coverage and food access from hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia, cut off access to doctors and services for whole communities by jeopardizing hospitals, and raise costs for people in every corner of the commonwealth – all to put even more money in the pockets of the ultra-wealthy,” Ashley Kenneth, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis said in a statement.

If Medicaid recipients lose their health insurance, there would likely be costly ripple effects in their communities. If more people become uninsured, then it could raise the costs for hospitals for providing free care to patients whose coverage has been terminated, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report. 

“However states respond, the cuts to Medicaid would destabilize the health care system — harming providers and increasing uncompensated care for hospitals,” the report said. 

About 900,000 Virginians benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Republicans want states to share more of the costs of running the program by at least $353 million a year, according to a report by Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 

Cuts to SNAP, which the Urban Institute calls “a proven antihunger and antipoverty program,” would likely make it harder for people to afford groceries. And if people have to cut back because they can’t afford groceries, that could mean a hit to local businesses, could ripple all the way out to the farms that grow the country’s crops.