Virginians call on Republicans to protect health care, end shutdown

Virginians voice their fears about what the loss of health care subsidies will mean for them and their families, and union leaders representing federal workers are angry their members are being treated like political pawns.

Lane Waldron suffers from chronic migraines, but because she has access to healthcare, she’s able to work while studying theater at George Mason University. 

Waldron can get that treatment because of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that make her health care plan affordable. If the subsidies expire, as they are set to at the end of this year, millions of Americans who rely on the ACA for care are expected to lose coverage. 

Waldron, a Leesburg native, is lucky enough that her parents would step in to help her, but she knows not everyone is that fortunate. 

“A lot of my friends and fellow college students don’t have that,” Waldron said in an interview Wednesday. “They’re far enough away from home, because they moved for college, that it wouldn’t be very easy for their parents to help them.”

She shared her concerns at a roundtable with US Rep. James Walkinshaw held at Elden Street Tea Shop, where Waldron works. Walkinshaw blamed Republicans for ignoring what Democrats are calling a health care crisis.

Democrats want to extend the ACA subsidies that people like Waldron rely on, but President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have refused to negotiate over the subsidies as part of a spending bill. 

The impasse has resulted in a government shutdown now in its second week and growing more urgent by the day for Virginians, elected officials, and union leaders. 

“Premiums are going to skyrocket,” Walkinshaw said in an interview. “So we need to address the crisis now and come up with a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government.”

The Virginia State Corporation Commission has estimated that 47,000 Virginians would become uninsured if the ACA subsidies expire at the end of the year. Nationally, individuals and families who buy subsidized ACA coverage will see their premiums more than double on average if the premium enhanced tax credits expire. 

The shutdown has also put the future of federal workers and active duty military personnel in jeopardy.

The urgency of the crisis broke through on C-SPAN on Thursday when a military spouse named Samantha in Fort Belvoir, Virginia called in to confront Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was on air taking questions live from callers. 

Samantha asked Johnson about his opposition to allowing a vote on providing military members with emergency pay if the shutdown continues. Her voice shaking, Samantha said she has “two medically fragile children,” that her husband has done two tours in Afghanistan, and that she’s a Republican whose family lives paycheck to paycheck.  

“I am begging you to pass this legislation,” she said. “My kids could die. We don’t have the credit because of the medical bills that I have to pay regularly. You could stop this, and you could be the one that could say, ‘Military’s getting paid.’ And I think that it is awful. And the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year, to do this to military families, is insane.”

Johnson responded by saying Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, but polling seems to suggest most Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown.

A poll by The Washington Post found 47% of Americans blaming Republicans for the shutdown, compared to 30% for Democrats. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Tuesday found people blame both parties for the shutdown, with slightly more holding Republicans responsible.

And the results of a survey done by Public Policy Polling and released by the Democratic Governors Association on Thursday found 46% of Virginia voters blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, compared to 37% who blame Democrats in Congress.

As the shutdown drags on with little progress in sight, leaders of federal workers unions held a press conference in Washington on Wednesday demanding their members stop being used as political pawns and blasting the Trump administration for threatening to withhold backpay from some federal employees.

“Every American should be furious with the threats that this president is making to federal employees in this country,” said Randy Erwin, the national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. “Congress, do your damn job!”