Key rural Virginia legislator voices support for Medicaid expansion; other Republicans, and other states, may follow

Kilgore

Prominent Virginia legislator Terry Kilgore, chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, said last week that he supports Medicaid expansion because it will help the constituents in his struggling district in the state's far southwest corner. The Republican's change of mind could make it easier for other rural conservatives to follow suit,  Laura Vozzella reports for The Washington Post.

Kilgore's announcement comes only months after Democrats, many running on a health-care platform, almost obliterated Republicans' majority in the House. That may have helped convince Republicans to swing on the issue, but with a conservative twist: work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients. Republicans in at least 10 states have supported Medicaid expansion with work requirements, and Kentucky and Indiana already received the greenlight from the White House. The Columbia Missourian reports that a bill in that state's legislature would impose work rules.

Kilgore said he believes that Republicans' failure to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act means it's not going away any time soon. "They’ve kept Medicaid expansion in the [federal] budget," he told Vozzella. "So it’s time for Virginia to act. But we’ve got to act in the Virginia way."