What state Sen. Glen Sturtevant's 'no' vote on Medicaid means

Back in 2015, then state Senate candidate Glen Sturtevant opposed Medicaid expansion, calling it a “non-starter.” 

Sturtevant won his race but his opposition to Medicaid expansion is out of step with his district. Despite the fact that as many as 6,400 of his constituents were predicted to be newly eligible for coverage and a March 2018 poll from Public Policy Polling found 62% of respondents in his district supported the expansion, he voted against Medicaid expansion, along with most Republicans in the General Assembly.

Democrats got the bill passed after years of opposition, and since the start of this year, nearly 300,000 low-income Virginians have now enrolled in the program, including roughly 5,000 in Sturtevant’s district. 

Sturtevant’s ‘no’ vote was the result of his belief that healthcare should be left to the free market. But under the existing market in Virginia, costs are skyrocketing. A recent survey from the Altarum Healthcare Value Hub and the Virginia Center for Health Innovation found that 63% of Virginians want government to address healthcare in the upcoming year. 

The same survey found that more than half (55%) of Virginians have had trouble affording health care in the last year, and 78% are worried about affording health care in the future.