Doctor: It's Not Too Late for Medicaid Expansion in Va.

Medicaid expansion is not included in Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposed 2012-14 budget, but Fredericksburg Physician Christopher Lillis said citizens can still influence the General Assembly to take action.

Lillis, along with Sister Mary Ellen Lacy, one of the Nuns on the Bus from NETWORK, participated in a Tuesday lunch hour panel discussion at St. George's Episcopal Church on the issue.

The Dec. 18 panel discussion was co-sponsored by The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare and Virginia Organizing.

"The General Assembly will consider Governor McDonnell's budget when in meets in the new year, and it can revise his budget and add it [Medicaid expansion] back in," Lillis said.

The Supreme Court's June 2012 ruling on the Affordable Care Act said Medicaid Expansion is an optional decision left up to individual states. 

"Medicaid is, simply put, a partnership between state and federal governments to provide health care to impoverished and disabled citizens," Sister Mary Ellen Lacy said.  She said the expansion would be fully funded by the federal government from 2014-16, working down to 90 percent funding by the feds in 2020. 

"The fact that more than 400,000 people in Virginia have no access to routine health care is an unconscionable statistic,"  Lacy said.  "Every person has a right to those things that protect and sustain life, and that includes health care," she said. 

Lillis, who is on the board of Doctors for America and also volunteers at the Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg, agreed. 

"We must urge our leaders to be mindful of social justice when they craft policy," he said.  "In the face of scarce resources, we must focus on those with the greatest needs."

"We are getting to a place where the profit in the practice of medicine is dominating the morality of the practice of medicine," Lillis said.

"In Virginia, hospitals are on the medicare expansion side because they realize they will benefit," Lillis said.  The Virginia Chapter of the American College of Physicians has also endorsed medicaid expansion, Lillis said.

"A healthy population actually needs less medical resources because they get routine care and early diagnosis, which then requires less expensive interventions," he said.

"I don't know that your governor is going to have a change of heart," Lacy said.  "God is looking for us to step up. We are our brother's keeper, and we will be asked what we did to the least of these. These faith teachings apply to almost every religion."

"We need to get active.  We need to call out our politicians.  We need to stay deeply involved in this fight," she said.

"Get to know your state senator and state representatives and contact them," Lillis said. 

Related Stories:

Video: Fredericksburg Doctor Urges Support for Medicaid Expansion

Where each state stands on ACA's Medicaid expansion (The Advisory Board Company)

Medicaid Expansion: States Must Meet Obamacare Standards To Get Full Federal Funding (Huffington Post)

Nuns on the Bus in Fredericksburg to Advocate for Medicaid Expansion

Virginia Leaders React to Supreme Court Ruling on Affordable Care Act

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