My Plan To Rebuild Virginia's Health Care Safety Nets Equitably

RICHMOND, VA — As a patient, daughter, wife and mother, I have had to navigate a health care system in which too often, the quality and affordability of care you receive — or if you even receive care at all — depends on who you are, where you live, or where you work. Yet, every Virginian should feel the security of knowing that whatever or whenever they need healthcare of any kind, they can get it without going bankrupt.

The tragic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has touched every community in Virginia. Since March 2020, we’ve lost more than 11,000 Virginians to COVID — every one of them a family member, a community member, a loved one. The COVID crisis has also further exposed and exacerbated the existing gaps and inequities in our health care system.

To be blunt, our healthcare system wasn’t ready to meet the COVID crisis. When we rebuild it, we must do so in a way that leaves no Virginian or community behind.

I’m ready to do that as Governor on day one.

As a legislator, I’ve helped deliver some of the most significant action on health care in the history of our Commonwealth. I fought for more than 5 years to expand Medicaid, which provided health insurance to more than 500,000 Virginians. In 2020, I spearheaded the bill to create the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange under the Affordable Care Act to further expand and improve access to care, lower premiums, and improve efficiency of health care for approximately 230,000 Virginians.

But as Virginia begins to move forward from COVID-19, we cannot return to the health care system of the past that left so many Virginians and communities behind. We must put health equity at the forefront. That’s why today I’m releasing my comprehensive health care plan to rebuild Virginia’s health system and address vulnerabilities around access, cost, and quality that existed before and were exacerbated by COVID.

It’s time to make health care equitable, accessible, and affordable in Virginia — for everyone.

My health care agenda will close the gaps in medical and behavioral health in every corner of the Commonwealth, including access to healthy foods, employment, housing, and education. As governor, I’ll pass legislation to provide health care coverage for 88,000 uninsured Virginia children, including 13,000 undocumented children. I’ll build on my work in the legislature to address the Black maternal mortality rate by investing $30 million in maternal care, ensuring medicaid covers pregnant women up to the first full year after birth, funding bias and cultural competency training for health care providers, and recruiting students from our HBCUs to increase diversity in the health provider workforce. I’ll also deploy new Virginia Safe Communities grants to localities to combat the high rates of LGBTQ+ youth suicide. These initiatives will ensure that no matter your income, zip code, gender, sexuality, or race, you can get the care you deserve in Virginia.

It’s time to finally prioritize mental health in the governor’s agenda. When I’m governor, Virginia will lead the nation through reforming behavioral health access and quality by providing needs-based funding to localities, a new focus on behavioral health equity, investing in and strengthening our community service boards and private providers, increasing resources for crisis intervention, and getting more behavioral health professionals in our schools by lifting the cap on state funding for these and other support personnel. Behavioral health is integral to overall health, and that’s how Virginia will treat it under a McClellan administration.

We must also make sure that health care is accessible for every Virginian, no matter their zip code or language. I’ll close the digital divide in and expand telehealth and scope of practice to better reach rural Virginia, and increase funding for health navigators, to help Virginians enroll in the Medicaid and Virginia Health Benefit Exchange program, including hiring multilingual navigators in Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese and other languages. Closing the access gap will be my priority as governor.

Health care cannot be accessible if it is not affordable, but over the past decade, Virginians saw an 86.5% increase in out-of-pocket costs for employer-provided health care, which included increased deductibles and premiums. No Virginian should have to choose between paying their bills or purchasing their prescription. As governor, I will increase the oversight power of the Bureau of Insurance to rein in high health premiums and pharmaceutical costs. I will create a Virginia Prescription Affordability Board under the Bureau of Insurance to protect consumers and lower prescription costs. As governor, I’ll also work with the Biden-Harris administration to regulate and reduce prices for noncompetitive, unfairly priced drugs and incentivize the increased production of essential generic medications.

Virginia must remain a leader in the South — and in the nation — on reproductive health care. With Roe v. Wade at risk before a right-wing Supreme Court, Virginia needs a governor who will make our Commonwealth a haven for reproductive access and freedom. I’m proud to be endorsed by NARAL Pro Choice Virginia for my 15 years of work expanding reproductive access, passing the Reproductive Health Protection Act, repealing Republican-era TRAP laws, and removing the ban on abortion coverage for health insurance plans offered through the Health Benefits Exchange. As governor, I’ll continue to protect and expand access to reproductive health by passing the Reproductive Health Equity Act and a Constitutional Amendment to enshrine the principle of Roe v. Wade.

As Virginia steps into recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, rebuilding Virginia’s health care and social safety nets will be essential. But we must make sure that our recovery includes investments in the health care workforce. I will implement paid, family, medical, and sick leave as governor because it’s time to pay our essential workforce the support they deserve.

We cannot simply go back to the way things were in 2019. We must rebuild our health care system with an eye toward the future and a commitment to true equity, accessibility and affordability in the health of our Commonwealth. Under a McClellan administration, Virginia will become a beacon for quality health care.