Virginia United Coalition

Marvin Figueroa

"H.R. 1’s devastating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP threaten the health and financial security of families across the Commonwealth who are already working hard to make ends meet. These coalitions are an important step toward ensuring that every Virginian is treated with dignity and has the opportunity to thrive. While Virginia is working to protect access to care and help families navigate these changes, we know we cannot make up for every dollar Washington is taking away. We must continue to stand together to protect our communities and ensure families have the support they need to build a better future.”

— Secretary Marvin B. Figueroa

Virginia United Coalition Preamble

"The federal law known as H.R. 1 will have widespread negative repercussions on both individual Virginians' access to coverage and to our healthcare system.

These effects will reverberate across patients, families, healthcare professionals, providers, and communities across the Commonwealth. They will place new burdens on Virginians, create new administrative demands, and increase pressure on the organizations that make up Virginia's healthcare safety net.

While there is no way for Virginia to undo the harms caused by this law, we must work to reduce these harms and help eligible Virginians remain connected to coverage and care. At the same time, we recognize that these changes will not be felt evenly across the Commonwealth. Identifying where gaps in coverage, capacity, and resources emerge, and appropriately directing attention and resources in response, is central to this effort.

Through Virginia United, the organizations commit, within their respective missions, roles, and available resources, to working together to do what they are able to protect the health and well-being of Virginians and mitigate the effects of H.R. 1. These efforts include:

Support efforts to provide Virginians with timely and accurate information about coverage changes.
Support efforts to help eligible individuals maintain coverage whenever possible.
Support clear pathways for connecting people to enrollment and renewal assistance.
Identify implementation problems and emerging gaps early and communicate them to the Commonwealth.
Support efforts to ensure continuity of care for people affected by coverage changes.
Share promising practices, resources, and lessons across organizations.
Share available information on the progress of our collective efforts.
Continue to advocate at the federal level for changes to H.R. 1 that protect coverage and preserve access to care for Virginians.

The Commonwealth, for its part, commits to implementing H.R. 1 in ways that minimize avoidable coverage losses and administrative burden, to providing timely data, guidance, and model materials to partner organizations in advance of implementation deadlines, and to maintaining an open channel for early identification of implementation problems.

This is not a commitment by any one organization to solve every challenge created by H.R. 1. It is a shared promise that Virginia's healthcare community and state government will respond together, remain accountable to one another, and place the needs of Virginians at the center of implementation."